NYC mayor Bill de Blasio slams Trump over ‘outrageous’ claim hospitals are hoarding medical supplies – The Sun
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has blasted President Trump over his "outrageous" claim hospitals are hoarding medical supplies today.
De Blasio made the comments after Trump said hospitals were hoarding vital ventilators and insinuated someone was stealing COVID-19 masks yesterday.
Speaking on MSNBC Monday, de Blasio – who just weeks ago, urged New Yorkers to "go about your lives" as the pandemic escalated- described the president's comments as "insulting" and "outrageous."
"It’s incredibly insensitive," de Blasio said "I don’t know what the president’s talking about.
"It's not true and it's the wrong thing for him to do and he should just get back to work, be the commander-in-chief and get us help."
By Sunday afternoon, at least 776 people in NYC were killed as a result of coronavirus and Citywide, there were 33,474 confirmed cases.
Earlier on Monday morning, De Blasio had issued a stark warning on CNN that the City's public hospitals will run out of critical supplies this coming Sunday, April 5.
"I’ve put down a marker," de Blasio said. "Sunday is D-Day. We need help by Sunday."
New York is the US COVID-19 epicenter with 59,568 cases statewide and over 1,000 deaths as of March 30.
NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo has cited the need for 140,000 equipped hospital beds and supplies on the cusp of the viral "apex."
The US Navy ship, Comfort, will dock at Pier 90 on the West Side, bringing 1,000 floating hospital beds and 1,200 personnel to NYC today.
But yesterday, the president questioned why the amount of supplies needed to cope with the pandemic.
“How do you go from [10,000] to 20,000 masks [prior to the pandemic] — to 300,000," Trump asked reporters.
“Something’s going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?
"And we have that happening in numerous places.”
“I don’t think it’s hoarding,” he added. “I think maybe it’s worse than hoarding.”
But Cuomo has repeatedly said state hospitals will need 30,000 ventilators to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients. The Feds have sent 4,000.
Trump also invoked the Defense Production Act last week to contract companies like General Motors to manufacture the critical machines quickly.
He also signed the CAREs Act into law last week to help millions of Americans struggling amid the escalating pandemic.
This morning, the president assured residents "New York should be fine. They should have more than enough [ventilators]" during a Fox and Friends interview.
But Cuomo insisted the "tsunami is coming" to the Big Apple on MSNBC.
"The science people, the government professionals have to stand up and look the President in the eye and say this is not a political exercise," he said.
"This is not press relations. It's not optics. The tsunami is coming. We know it is. Now is the time to gather supplies, do the preparations because it's too late the day before.
"If you have not done the work before the storm hits, it's too late to do it once the storm hits. And the storm is coming."
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