President Donald Trump is revealing what he considered to be the “scariest day” of his life.
While addressing the nation during the White House Coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday, Trump recalled the day he learned the United States was “short of hundreds of thousands of ventilators.”
“The scariest day of my life was about a month ago, when after a long day of meetings my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators — that we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators,” Trump said.
See the clip from Trump’s briefing:
Trump went on to criticize the Obama administration for the system he claims his administration inherited. Then, he took aim at the sitting governors, accusing them of making unrealistic demands of the federal government.
“This is the system we inherited,” the president said, adding, “I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didn’t have and, you look at the states … The states were not prepared. I knew that every person who needed a ventilator, and didn’t get one, would die.”
Trump’s remarks at the coronavirus press briefing followed a string of reports about the president’s clash with multiple Democratic governors.
On Tuesday, the president clashed with governors over reopening states, as previously reported on IJR. Although Trump claimed he had the “total” authority to reopen states, some experts pointed out the flaw in his statement, noting the 10th Amendment.
“Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States [and] the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect,” Trump tweeted on Monday.
Though governors reportedly do not need the president’s authorization on their response to the coronavirus outbreak, Trump said during Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing, “I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly. And I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening, very powerful reopening plan of their estate in a time in a manner which is most appropriate.”
….It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2020
As of Wednesday morning, confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 609,000 and the death toll is over 26,000.