Trump takes swipe at Maryland and Illinois governors
(CNN) President Trump took a swipe at two governors at today's coronavirus press briefing.
Trump said Vice President Mike Pence outlined testing capacity during his call with governors earlier in the day, providing each state’s governor with a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of labs with additional testing capacity.
He claimed Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, “didn’t understand” the list.
“Some of the governors, like, as an example, the governor from Maryland, didn’t really understand the list. He didn’t understand too much about what was going on,” Trump said.
He then criticized Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat.
“Pritzker from Illinois did not understand his capacity (to test), not simply ask the federal government to provide unlimited support,” he said.
Trump also praised comments from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo regarding his state’s testing capacity, noting that Cuomo will be traveling to Washington tomorrow and will meet with him in the Oval Office “with some of his people.”
Cuomo's spokesperson Dani Lever confirmed the meeting will take place tomorrow afternoon, but had no further details about the visit or attendees.
The President said during the briefing that Vice President Mike Pence explained existing coronavirus testing capabilities to governors on a call earlier Monday.
“Through the public-private partnerships and deregulation, the federal government has already made immense testing capabilities available, but some states need to take action fully utilize it,” Trump said.
“We’ll be doubling our number of daily tests if the governors bring their states fully online through the capability that they have. They have tremendous capability already out there, existing and we explained that to the governor(s) today,” Trump told reporters. “Mike and all the people explained it very strongly to the governors. They really get it now, I think.”
