LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[underdog150]

If your a red state you get all the supplies you want, blue states have to resort to what Illinois Governor Pritzker did.
Trump is pathetic.
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Is Trump Using Critical Medical Supplies to Blackmail Blue State Governors?
He almost certainly is. It’s just that careful, responsible journalists won’t say it yet.

Americans have become so jaded by the emanations coming from our president that we can lose sight of just how depraved he is. Each step goes a little frrther than the last, testing the bounds of decency and public tolerance. Meanwhile, the political press gingerly moves toward using words and phrases it might never have dared about previous administrations, without going so far as to admit the whole truth for fear of overstepping its own boundaries.

Trump’s use of crucial medical supplies in a pandemic to cajole and punish governors who aren’t adequately nice to him is only the latest, most jawdropping example. Trump has been taking advantage of the power of federal procurement to try to enforce the silence of governors critical of his incompetent response to coronavirus: He has threatened to withhold essential equipment that will mean life or death for thousands of people in those states.

On March 25th at Vox, editors gave an Aaron Rupar piece the title “Trump commits to helping blue states fight the coronavirus — if their governors are nice to him.” True—but even this description undersells the outrage of the situation.

A few days later Trump made it even more explicit, with specific reference to Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan:

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday made a startling claim that medical supply vendors are “being told” to avoid sending badly needed gear to her state in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

During an interview with local station WWJ News Radio, Whitmer detailed how her state has had difficulty in securing supplies to help hospitals cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients.

“What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we’ve procured contracts — they’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan,” she said. “It’s really concerning, I reached out to the White House last night and asked for a phone call with the president.”

This is not an unsourced claim by the governor. Trump readily admitted it:

“I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government,” Trump said.

“Michigan is a very important state, I love the people of Michigan … but she is a new governor who has not been pleasant,” he said.

“We don’t like to see the complaints,” he added.

And he didn’t stop there.

“He calls all the governors,” Trump said. “I tell him, I mean, I’m a different type of person. I say Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan.”

“If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said.

Michigan’s health department is reporting 3,657 COVID-19 cases and 92 deaths. In Washington, there have been 3,700 cases, according to the state, and 175 deaths.

“We have done a hell of a job,” Trump said. “The federal government has really stepped up.”

Trump’s message to governors was that he wants “them to be appreciative.”

Everyone in mainstream journalism has had to walk a fine line here. The always excellent Greg Sargent at the Washington Post wrote a good piece saying as much as one could say as a responsible journalist: that Trump was tying aid to personal grievances, that he had said the things he had said. Sargent also added:

As the AP notes, there is no evidence this has directly influenced Trump’s treatment of states. Still, the very idea that he’d be preoccupied with it at a moment like this is utter madness.

And beyond his rage at being criticized, the possibility simply cannot be dismissed that Trump sees his explicit hand-washing of responsibility for the mounting death toll in certain parts of the country as something that will appeal to parts of the country that he perceives as his own.

It’s true. We don’t necessarily have direct evidence so far that Trump is actively withholding supplies from blue states. But that’s only because governors have been insufficiently groveling before him in spite of his negligence, likely because they still need serious help from the federal government during an unprecedented crisis. In other words, Trump has enormous leverage over them.

Aaron Blake, also at Washington Post, put it this way:

President Trump is a commander in chief dealing with a coronavirus outbreak in which many difficult decisions have to be made. And on Friday, he seemed to suggest some of those decisions could be made according to who has run afoul of him personally.

Appearing at the daily White House briefing, Trump disclosed that he has told Vice President Pence, who is leading the coronavirus task force, not to call the governors of Michigan and Washington state because those governors had been critical of Trump and the federal response.

“When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA, it’s not right,” Trump said.

It’s clear that editors at major newspapers are doing their best to state precisely what there is evidence for without jumping to the obvious conclusion.

Still, writers and editors shouldn’t be afraid to call this exactly what it so obviously seems to be: blackmail by the president of the United States in a pandemic crisis, with the threat of killing thousands of Americans over a fit of political and personal pique.

It’s not as if we weren’t warned. On twitter, Esquire‘s Charles Pierce highlighted this piece of argument from the impeachment inquiry by Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan:

“What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the President responded, ‘I would like you to do us a favor.’ I’ll… send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal.”

He got away with blackmailing a foreign ally in the middle of a war. Why wouldn’t he do it to domestic governors he considers his political enemies in the middle of a pandemic?
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/28/is-trump-using-critical-medical-supplies-to-blackmail-blue-state-governors/
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To avoid Fed confiscation Illinois Governor secretly bought PPEs from China. White House unhappy!

Illinois Governor Pritzker has obtained much needed medical supplies from China, without Trump’s and the Federal government’s knowledge, behind their backs. And the White House is not happy about it. Pritzker cites his fear that if he hadn’t gone behind the Federal Government’s back that the supplies would have just been seized before they arrived in his state.

ILLINOIS GOV. PRITZKER SECRETLY BOUGHT MEDICAL SUPPLIES FROM CHINA. AND THE WHITE HOUSE IS NOT HAPPY.

The White House issued a sharp rebuke Saturday to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who reportedly spent over $1.7 million on flights bringing medical supplies from China in secret—out of fear the Trump administration would seize the cargo for the federal stockpile.

To put this into perspective, and step back for a second here: Pritzker, who was specifically told by Trump that he was on his own to buy medical supplies in the open market, does so, and the White House is not happy with this because he did this without notifying them, he did it in secret? Why did Pritzker do this in secret? Because many shipments to states were diverted, seized, and confiscated for the federal stockpile, stolen, even though these states paid Millions of Dollars for these essential supplies, just to have them taken away right under their noses in an act of highway robbery.

Reports first emerged earlier this week that Illinois was “secretly” getting PPE and other medical supplies shipped from China in order to avoid interference from the federal government.

The Chicago-Sun Times first reported Pritzker’s China flight payments, citing a source familiar with the matter who said that the governor didn’t want to release details “because we’ve heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States.”

In an online portal that tracks all of the state’s coronavirus-related spending, released by the Illinois State Comptroller on Tuesday, there are two payments of $888,275 each, listed as “aircraft charter flight to Shanghai, China for COVID-19 response.”

“We’ve had to search the entire globe to find what we need. Shipping is very difficult,” Pritzker told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday, after his office confirmed the original reports a day earlier.

Unbelievable. The governor of Illinois has to be afraid that PPEs and medical supplies he needs for his state would be confiscated by Trump’s Feds right out from under his nose, so he has to arrange shipments in secret to make sure he actually gets what he needs? What kind of Banana Republic are we? “Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States?” FOR REAL? What is wrong with this monster?

He said that because “the federal government seems to be interrupting supplies that are being sent elsewhere in the nation” he “wanted to make sure that we received what we ordered,” and also told CNN that he had “given up” on receiving help from the Trump administration.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere responded, telling RealClearPolitics that Pritzker, “through ignorance or incompetence or a propensity to politicize everything,” was wrong, and that the administration had been providing Illinois with resources.

Stealing them is more like it.

Dick Durbin explains it:

Earlier this month, Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in an interview with MSNBC that Pritzker was calling CEOs of major airlines and begging them for help in organizing airlifts of PPE and medical supplies from China to Illinois. “They couldn’t get flights, cargo flights out,” he said. “You know, I’ve got a very talented governor here… but to think it’s his responsibility to airlift what should have been in the national stockpile is incredible.”

Indeed, providing PPEs and Coronavirus test kits was quite clearly the federal governments’ responsibility in this national crisis. What Trump, Kushner and the entire criminal Trump enterprise have been doing instead, delaying, diverting, confiscating, seizing, has been nothing short of a gross dereliction of duty, a callous disregard for human lives and a disgusting “game” of politics and favoritism when many human lives have been and are being lost daily because of the actions, past and present, of Trump and his mob-like cabal.



Let’s go back in time 3 weeks to set the table for this sorry state of affairs, which now is forcing governors to go behind the White House’s backs to obtain medical supplies, test kits and PPE material (surely Pritzker isn’t the only one):

From the very beginning Trump told governors they are on their own obtaining life saving PPEs and medical supplies such as masks, ventilators, face shields, gowns, gloves, etc. So, the governors had to look around in the open market and bid for these life saving items without any help from the Federal government.

USA TODAY, 3/27/2020: IT'S STATE VS. STATE IN A FRANTIC SEARCH FOR MEDICAL GEAR TO BATTLE CORONAVIRUS' SPREAD
In typical GOP manner it wasn’t about getting the needed equipment to the states quickly, without red tape, in the fastest way possible, but the idea was “Let the market make the price and whoever is willing to pay the most gets PPEs”. Human lives be damned.

To make matter worse the feds decided to actually participate in the market themselves, outbidding states for these life saving PPEs so they can accumulate them for their federal stockpile, a federal stockpile that Trump and Kushner made clear was not meant for the states. Kushner: The federal stockpile is ours, not the states'

CNBC, 4/3/2020: STATES ARE BIDDING AGAINST EACH OTHER AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR IMPORTANT MEDICAL SUPPLIES — AND IT’S DRIVING UP PRICES
Now, to make matters even MUCH worse, and to add insult to injury, the feds didn’t just outbid the states to beef up their stockpile, which wasn’t for the states, they also would confiscate, aka steal, supplies that the states had “won” fair and square in those ridiculous bidding wars, outbidding other states and the federal government for them. That was criminal on the part of the Trump cabal.

DAILYKOS 4/4/2020: KUSHNER USING FEDERAL GOVT TO CONFISCATE N95'S BOUGHT BY AMERICAN STATES AND EUROPEAN ALLIES.
NY TIMES 4/6/2020: "SWEPT UP BY FEMA"
BUSINESS INSIDER 4/8/2020: OFFICIALS IN AT LEAST 6 STATES ARE ACCUSING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF QUIETLY DIVERTING THEIR ORDERS FOR CORONAVIRUS MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
LA TIMES: 4/7/2020: HOSPITALS SAY FEDS ARE SEIZING MASKS AND OTHER CORONAVIRUS SUPPLIES WITHOUT A WORD
So, against the backdrop of the federal government and the Trump criminals doing everything in their power to deprive states from getting life saving PPEs is it any wonder that Illinois Governor Pritzker had to go behind their backs to get the supplies he needs for his state? And, the Trump White House isn’t happy about it. Well, well. Get THE HELL over it. You are robbing states and you are not happy that they are forced to go out on their own to find the supplies they need, fearing that you’ll just seize them at the point of entry again, as you’ve done countless times?

Pritzker has given up on the White House ever doing the right thing, ever being helpful to them:

CNN, 4/14/2020: ILLINOIS GOVERNOR SAYS HE'S 'GIVEN UP' ON CORONAVIRUS HELP FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that he has "given up" on receiving federal assistance to help combat the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying instead that his state is "doing what we need to do despite" President Donald Trump.

"We have gotten very little help from the federal government. It's fine. I've given up on any promises that have been made," Pritzker, a Democrat, told CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront." "I hope something will get delivered from the federal government, but I don't expect it anymore."
His comments follow the President's statement earlier Tuesday at a White House news conference that governors "are supposed to do testing" for Covid-19, despite many state leaders saying they need federal assistance to do so. The lack of testing has been a point of contention between governors and the federal government, as the number of coronavirus cases increases

For Illinois, Pritzker said Tuesday, "the President at this point is near irrelevant when it comes to this question of testing."
Pritzker, an outspoken state leader during the pandemic, has expressed frustration before over how Trump has handled the federal response to the outbreak. He previously said he had told the Trump administration his state needed 4,000 ventilators, and he told CNN's Jake Tapper that the President's inaction on states' requests had created a "a Wild West" environment for procuring much-needed medical supplies.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/18/1938492/-To-avoid-Fed-confiscation-Illinois-Governor-secretly-bought-PPEs-from-China-White-House-unhappy?utm_campaign=trending
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