Rachel Maddow tore into the Trump administration on Thursday for refusing to use the full power of the federal government to get life-saving medical gear to the places that need it most right now.
During her program, the MSNBC host pointed out how leaders in both parties are pleading for help from the White House, but this administration is unwilling to step up.
“We need the power of the federal government to be brought to bear to assure critical supplies … because it doesn’t just happen naturally in the market in the context of a pandemic,” Maddow said. “But for whatever reason, this particular administration … just cannot do it. Or will not do it.”
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Rachel Maddow says the Trump administration is standing in the way of life-saving medical equipment getting to the places that need it most. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/LpJxlIuOPL
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 27, 2020
Maddow said:
It may be that we just got unlucky with having the wrong president at the wrong time. It may be that a better president, a better-run federal government, could do this thing that we need right now – bringing the power of the federal government to bear to assure critical supplies of life-saving medical equipment, gowns and masks and other protective equipment to keep doctors and nurses alive, ventilators and other complex medical equipment to keep sick patients alive, testing kits and lab capacity to process those kits so we can get our hands around the size of this epidemic and trace the contacts of infected people, find out who’s infectious and who must be isolated so they stop making the epidemic even bigger. We need all of those things, right? We need the power of the federal government to be brought to bear to assure critical supplies along with those things, because it doesn’t just happen naturally in the market in the context of a pandemic. But for whatever reason, this particular administration, the federal government under this particular leadership just cannot do it. Or will not do it. And so you see Governor Baker there, Republican governor of Massachusetts, you see Governor Cuomo in New York, you see Governor Pritzker in Illinois, you see Sen. Murphy in Connecticut lamenting and pleading for change over the fact that it really is every state for themselves. Literally, the states are competing with one another and competing with the federal government for masks and for hand sanitizer and for all the rest, which is driving up the prices, it’s leaving some supplies stockpiled even now, some supplies stockpiled waiting for better bids and it’s leaving doctors and nurses in the most hard-hit hospitals already using the same masks day after day, shift after shift, patient after patient, and this is only the first hospital influx. This is only the initial hospital influx. And already, the hardest-hit hospitals are out of protective equipment for doctors and nurses.
‘The wrong president at the wrong time’
Donald Trump is exactly the wrong president at the wrong time, as Rachel Maddow said on Thursday. Not only does he lack the competence to be an effective leader, but he is simply incapable of setting aside politics or ego – even in times of crisis.
That was clear from the very beginning as he downplayed the crisis only until it started to impact the economy. The economy, of course, is the only decent campaign talking point he had to his name.
Just this week, Trump basically told blue state governors that he’s willing to lend them a helping hand during this outbreak – but only if they say nice things about him.
As the number of reported infections continues to rise rapidly and American hospitals begin to feel the squeeze, Donald Trump’s refusal to act will almost certainly lead to a greater loss of a life.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
