PANDEMIC PREZ: ‘I DON’T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AT ALL’
‘I Don’t Take Responsibility At All’: Trump Passes Buck On Coronavirus Testing Mess
The president declared a national emergency Friday during a press conference with a parade of corporate executives.
President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but spent much of the announcement refusing to take responsibility for testing delays and praising his own inadequate response that helped let the coronavirus spread rapidly throughout much of the country.
Joined by representatives from companies like Walgreens, CVS and Quest Diagnostics, Trump unveiled a private-sector partnership to “vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus.”
He said half a million tests would be available by “early next week.”
“We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely, quickly and conveniently, but we don’t want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn’t be doing it,” he said.
The national emergency declaration will also allocate up to $50 billion in disaster relief funding to states, effective immediately, Trump said.
The president and his administration have faced intense criticism for delays in testing for the new coronavirus. Many states and municipalities have reported a backlog in testing or an inability to test people who suspect they have contracted the virus.
Coronavirus tests are alarmingly hard to come by, which the top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health called “a failing” on Thursday.
Asked about the delays Friday, Trump defiantly said: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
When asked about his demolition of President Barack Obama’s pandemic response team, Trump called it “a nasty question.”
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