- Jul 13, 2005
- 33,981
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This is just Trumps way of washing his hands of this issue!! Hell it is the governments fault the states were caught with their pants down....now he says what he say.....
President Donald Trump on Thursday put the onus on governors to obtain the critical equipment their states need to fight the coronavirus pandemic — telling reporters that the federal government is “not a shipping clerk” for the potentially life-saving supplies.
Appearing at the daily press briefing of the White House coronavirus task force, the president defended his decision to invoke the Defense Production Act — which would allow the administration to direct U.S. industry to ramp up production of emergency medical provisions — without actually triggering the statute, .
“Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work, and they are doing a lot of this work,” Trump told reporters. “The Federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we're not a shipping clerk.”
The president’s remarks amounted to a rebuke of governors’ recent pleas for greater federal intervention amid the rapidly spreading outbreak, which they warn will soon overwhelm local health care systems if ventilators, hospital beds, face masks and other necessities are not soon furnished in significantly greater numbers.
Trump said Thursday the administration will “help out wherever we can,” but added that the acquisition of urgent supplies “is really for the local governments, governors and people in the state, depending on the way they divide it up. And they'll do that, and they're doing a very good job of it.”
Trump previously announced Wednesday that he would dispatch one of the Navy’s two hospital ships to New York Harbor, while the other prepared to deploy to a location on the West Coast. The vessels are equipped with 1,000 hospital beds each and intended to relieve civilian hospitals struggling with capacity in the face of the public health crisis.
President Donald Trump on Thursday put the onus on governors to obtain the critical equipment their states need to fight the coronavirus pandemic — telling reporters that the federal government is “not a shipping clerk” for the potentially life-saving supplies.
Appearing at the daily press briefing of the White House coronavirus task force, the president defended his decision to invoke the Defense Production Act — which would allow the administration to direct U.S. industry to ramp up production of emergency medical provisions — without actually triggering the statute, .
“Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work, and they are doing a lot of this work,” Trump told reporters. “The Federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we're not a shipping clerk.”
The president’s remarks amounted to a rebuke of governors’ recent pleas for greater federal intervention amid the rapidly spreading outbreak, which they warn will soon overwhelm local health care systems if ventilators, hospital beds, face masks and other necessities are not soon furnished in significantly greater numbers.
Trump said Thursday the administration will “help out wherever we can,” but added that the acquisition of urgent supplies “is really for the local governments, governors and people in the state, depending on the way they divide it up. And they'll do that, and they're doing a very good job of it.”
Trump previously announced Wednesday that he would dispatch one of the Navy’s two hospital ships to New York Harbor, while the other prepared to deploy to a location on the West Coast. The vessels are equipped with 1,000 hospital beds each and intended to relieve civilian hospitals struggling with capacity in the face of the public health crisis.
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