New York Mayor Bill de Blasio thinks the army could be used to help fight Coronavirus. The Democrat said he doesn’t think servicemen simply want to stay in their bases during the crisis.
De Blasio spoke to CNN’s John Berman on Friday and pleaded for more medical personnel and supplies before suggesting military mobilization.
“I can get to Sunday when it comes to ventilators,” de Blasio said. “Monday, Tuesday, I’m not sure about yet.”
“That’s the blunt truth,” he said.
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The Mayor said he’d asked the federal government for help and contacted every company ‘literally on Earth’ but New York was still running out of supplies.
“The toughest part of the equation is the people part. The personnel” de Blasio said.
He said 5,000 people would soon need ventilators and medical attention from doctors and nurses but New York just didn’t have the people available.
Watch the video:
JUST NOW: "We can only get to Monday or Tuesday at this point. We don't know after that. How on earth is this happening in the greatest nation in the world? "@NYCMayor pleading for more personnel and supplies.
@NewDay pic.twitter.com/n02CNFRfoL
— John Berman (@JohnBerman) April 3, 2020
“We can only get to Monday or Tuesday at this point,” he said. “We don’t know after that. How on earth is this happening in the greatest nation in the world?”
“And how are our military at their bases?” de Blasio asked. “I don’t think they want to be there. I think they want to be at the front.”
“But they have not been given the order to mobilize,” the Mayor said.
“There are doctors now all over the country in private practice, going about their business,” he added.
“We need to treat this like the war it is.”
President Donald Trump has called himself a ‘wartime president’ during the pandemic. But he has been repeatedly criticized for not taking decisive action and was reluctant to invoke the Defense Production Act.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
