Trump for ignoring Democratic governors if they are ‘not appreciative’
In an interview on Thursday night, Trump criticised Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer saying they complained too much
US President Donald Trump has advised the country's Vice President Mike Pence not to call Democratic governors if they're not appreciative of the work being done by the federal government regarding coronavirus.
"If they don't treat you right, I don't call," said Trump while responding to Friday's White House briefing regarding his criticism of some Democratic governors, reported Forbes.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Trump criticised Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer saying they complained too much.
Apart from those, Trump also blasted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's without identifying him by name. He remarked the New York governor's request for 30,000 ventilators as incredible. "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators," he said.
Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Whitmer told a radio station that medical supply vendors informed her they've been told "not to send stuff" to her state amid the battle against Covid-19, reported Yahoo! news.
However, she did not say if the orders were coming from the White House or if vendors may have been intimidated by Trump's feud with the governor.
But she did appear to link the problem to the president because she told WWJ-AM in Detroit that she tried Thursday night to call the White House to discuss the issue.
The state made a request to Mike Pence urging the federal government to approve pending shipments of additional personal protective equipment, like a request for 200,000 swabs that has gone unfulfilled.
Whitmer told WWJ: "When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves [on medical supplies], we started procuring every item we could get our hands on. But what I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan."
She added, "It's really concerning. I reached out to the White House last night, asked for a phone call with the president, ironically at the time that all this other stuff was going on."
A dispute has developed between the president and the governors regarding Trump's reluctance to use the Defense Production Act, which allows the federal government to compel companies to develop supplies for national defense, saying last week the federal government isn't a "shipping clerk" and that "governors are supposed to be doing it."