Mayor Lightfoot, Gov. Prtizker hammer Trump administration on coronavirus response, stockpile comments
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A coronavirus cases rise, President Donald Trump and his administration have criticized states asking for supplies like ventilators and personal protective equipment, and exaggerating their needs.
"The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile, it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use," Jared Kushner said Thursday.
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Leaders in Illinois strongly disagreed with that Friday.
"I think Jared Kushner just does not understand this issue," said Governor JB Pritzker. "he does not understand what the federal government's role is to be in a national emergency."
"The question we should ask is what the heck has the Trump administration been doing over the last three and a half years?" wondered Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Lightfoot, in particular, did not hold back.
"The federal government has failed to do the planning that it needs on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to be prepared," she said.
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Friday Florida saw a 20 percent spike in cases in just the last 24 hours. Missouri and Alabama are finally implementing stay-at-home orders this weekend as COVID-19 cases in in those states rise.
Wisconsin's governor is seeking to postpone the state's upcoming primary election, calling a special legislative session Saturday that would create an all-mail election with a deadline of May 26 to return ballots.
The National Guard is building hospitals in Michigan and Connecticut.
In New York, officials said they could soon run out of the medical workers needed to take care of the critically ill. Governor Andrew Cuomo remains very concerned about running out of ventilators as well. Nearly 3,000 are now dead in New York, and funeral homes are overwhelmed.
Gov. Cuomo gave orders to seize ventilators from medical facilities with lower needs to re-deploy them to hospitals in crisis.
"I'm not going to let people die because we didn't redistribute ventilators," he said.
