During an unhinged interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night, President Donald Trump suggested that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is exaggerating the state’s need for ventilators to provide lifesaving care to coronavirus patients.
“I am getting along with Governor Cuomo,” Trump told Hannity. “I think that a lot of things are being said that are more — I don’t think certain things will materialize. A lot of equipment is being asked for but I don’t think they’ll need. …
“I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” Trump added. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”
Trump also used the interview to trash other Democratic governors who have criticized the federal government’s to the crisis, including Washington’s Jay Inslee and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer.
Trump bashes Gov. Inslee and Gov. Whitmer (whose name he can't remember), then suggests he might not approve a disaster declaration requested by Michigan because Whitmer has complained about the federal response pic.twitter.com/iaencGQUgG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2020
“We have people like Governor Inslee. He should be doing more. He shouldn’t be relying on the federal government,” Trump said. “That’s the state of Washington. He was a failed presidential candidate and he is always complaining.
“And the governor of Michigan, she’s not stepping up,” Trump said. “I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government. She doesn’t get it done, and we send her a lot. Now she wants a declaration of emergency and we’ll have to make a decision on that.
“We have had some trouble with the state of Washington, and he ran for president, didn’t exactly do well, he got zero and we had a big problem with a woman governor, you know who I’m talking about, from Michigan. Though we can’t — we don’t like to see the complaints,” he said.
In related news, the White House is backing away from a deal with General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to build 80,000 ventilators over concerns about the cost of the project, according to a report from the New York Times.
Watch Trump’s full interview with Hannity, and check out a few reactions to his comments, below.
