Published 7: 39 p.m. ET April 20, 2020| Updated 9: 53 p.m. ET April 20, 2020
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When inquired about states’ rights to choose when to reopen schools and companies, Trump said, “The president of the United States calls the shots.”.
U.S.A. TODAY
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who has often used his everyday coronavirus briefings to criticize Democratic governors in places like New York and California, extended his reach Monday to swing at a GOP state leader who has become a critic of the president’s insistence that states are prepared to increase screening.
Trump and other White Home officials have actually sought for days to deflect criticism from states that the federal government has actually refrained from doing enough to satisfy the screening requires required to begin resuming services and raising stay-at-home orders. Among the most singing governors pressing back on that story has been Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
Hogan, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, has become a spokesman for guvs of both parties during the crisis — on states’ requirements for screening, ventilators and other medical gear. He has become a regular component on Sunday political shows and cable and drew nationwide attention Monday for revealing that his state had protected 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea.
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” This is probably the number one problem in America, and has been from the start of this crisis, the absence of testing,” Hogan stated on CNN on Sunday.
Trump fired back Monday, and took the unusual action of repeatedly criticizing a governor from his own celebration throughout the everyday instruction with White Home reporters.
” A few of the governors like, as an example, the guv from Maryland, didn’t truly understand the list, he didn’t understand too much about what was going on,” Trump stated, referring to a list of some 5,000 laboratories nationwide the administration has said is prepared to accept addition coronavirus tests. “So now I think he’ll be able to do that. It’s quite basic. They have tremendous capacity. We intend to be able to assist him out.”
Trump went on to slam Hogan’s purchase of tests from South Korea. The president said that Hogan “might have conserved a lot of money” if he had actually asked Washington instead. He later stated “a little understanding” would have been practical for the guv.
” He actually didn’t learn about the federal labs,” Trump stated. “If he did learn about it, he would have mored than happy.”
Hogan has, in reality, been arguing for additional screening for weeks. Governors and some health authorities have actually stated labs are hamstrung by an absence of swabs and reagents needed to carry out the tests. Trump threatened this weekend to use the Korea War-era Defense Production Act to speed the manufacture of swabs.
Hogan reacted after Trump’s Monday press conference by tweeting he is “grateful” to Trump for sending a list of laboratories, which they will be “important for using the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea.”
I’m grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal laboratories and kindly providing Maryland use of them for #COVID19 screening. Accessing these federal labs will be vital for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have gotten from South Korea.
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) April 21, 2020
Trump has had an on-again, off-again relationship with numerous Democratic governors, lurching between heaping criticism and praise on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Before Monday, he had normally not criticized Hogan, a centrist Republican who represents a greatly Democratic state.
While he criticized Hogan, Trump stated Cuomo would check out the White House on Tuesday. Over the weekend, the president played a series of videos of Cuomo applauding Trump and the federal response to the infection.
Contributing: Michael Collins, Savannah Behrmann
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