The Trump administration thinks that governors and local officials are lying about the level of supplies that they need, so they are making them prove it before providing aid.
White House aides insist no state will run out of ventilators in the next 72 hours — even as front-line health workers in New York City relay harrowing stories of overwhelmed emergency rooms, people dying alone and dire shortages of protective gear like masks and gowns.
Governors and local leaders, White House aides say, need to demonstrate to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that they have searched their own stockpiles, hospitals and cities first for these supplies, since the administration and FEMA have been inundated by requests. Aides feel like some local leaders are asking for a level of supplies they realistically do not need — a point the president himself has made.
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The White House is trying to cover for their failure to provide supplies to hard-hit states and localities by blaming the states for asking for too much.
While Trump goes on paranoid rants about hospitals stealing supplies, people are dying who need ventilators. Doctors and nurses are getting because they lack PPE.
Trump has managed to take a bungled response and turn it into creating hoops and delays for states so that he can then blame those states for the illnesses, deaths, and economic destruction that will follow.
The administration is more interested in not being blamed that defeating the virus and saving lives. States need medical supplies, but they aren’t getting them because a failed president has convinced himself that they don’t really need them.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
