President Trump on Monday blasted criticism of the nation’s coronavirus testing as a political smear.
During a White House briefing, the president was asked why he views the issue as a “political attack,” despite governors on both sides of the aisle and health experts emphasizing the importance of testing.
“It’s not bipartisan. It’s mostly partisan,” Trump responded.
“We are dealing in politics. We are dealing in the thing called November third of this year… It’s called the presidential election,” he continued.
“No matter what I do, where we go, if I came up with a tablet and this thing was gone, they would say ‘Trump did a terrible job.’ That’s the political soundbite.”
But Trump then discussed criticism from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, who said he was forced to get the crucial materials from South Korea due to a shortage.
“He didn’t really know [about federal laboratory testing capacity],” Trump said.
The president claimed that “not everyone believes” an increase in testing is necessary and defended the nation’s capacity.
“We don’t need so much,” he said. “Democrats and others, they want maximum because they want to be able to criticize.”
The Trump administration on Monday provided governors with a list of labs where they could find additional testing capacity, the president said, adding “We’re in very good shape on testing.”
Vice President Mike Pence claimed the US has “enough testing capacity” for every state to start phase one of the White House’s plan on reopening.
Testing in the nation was bogged down as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention struggled to develop its own test in January — warning in early February that kits it had distributed to state labs did not work properly.
It took more than two weeks to resolve the problem, leading to delays in diagnoses through February.
The FDA also did not allow private labs to develop their own tests until Feb. 29 — almost six weeks after the first case was confirmed.
With Post wires
