Trump Issues 4-Point Clarification to Schumer in Blunt Letter
President Donald Trump late Thursday issued a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) responding to Schumers criticisms of the federal governments handling of the CCP virus pandemic.
“Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way,” Trump said in the letter.
In a letter earlier in the day , Schumer wrote to Trump saying that the “national response is far behind where it should be.” The letter raised the issue of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies in New York state and other areas across the United States, and called for the Trump administration to “designate a senior military officer to fix this urgent problem.”
Schumer also accused Trump of having dismissed the Defense Production Act (DPA) “as not being needed,” and criticized Trumps appointment of White House aide Peter Navarro as the National DPA Policy Coordinator as “woefully unqualified” for solving the PPE and ventilator shortages.
On Wednesday, Schumer appeared on CNNs “Out Front” program with a similar message as his Thursday letter.
The letter from the president provided four points of clarification to Schumer.
“1. As you are aware, Vice President Pence is in charge of the Task Force. By almost all accounts, he has done a spectacular job.
“2. The Defense Production Act (DPA) has been consistently used by my team and me for the purchase of billions of dollars worth of equipment, medical supplies. ventilators, and other related items. It has been powerful leverage, so powerful that companies generally do whatever we are asking, without even a formal notice. They know something is coming, and thats all they need to know.”
Trump on March 27 authorized the use of the DPA to compel General Motors to move faster on producing ventilators. On Thursday, he authorized the use of the DPA again to further ramp up ventilator production in the United States.
Read More US to Make 100,000 Ventilators in 100 Days, Says Trump
The third point in Trumps letter noted that Rear Admiral John Polowczyk is in charge of coordinating the United States COVID-19 supply chain task force at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“If you remember, my team gave you this information, but for public relations purposes, you choose to ignore it,” Trump wrote.
Finally, Trump pointed out that the federal government has provided New York state “many things, including hospitals, medical centers, medical supplies, record numbers of ventilators, and more.”
“You should have had New York much better prepared than you did, as Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said yesterday, New York was very late in its fight against the virus,” Trump wrote. “As you are aware, the federal government is merely a back-up for state governments. Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.”
