President Trump singled out Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan more than a few times at Monday's coronavirus task force briefing to suggest he had no clue what was going on in his own state. Hogan recently obtained 500,000 coronavirus test kits from South Korea as part of their Operation Enduring Friendship project that began last month. But Trump said that Gov. Hogan should have taken advantage of some of the labs right there in Maryland.
“I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea," Trump charged. "I think he needed to get a little knowledge - would have been helpful."
Gov. Hogan suggested that there was some miscommunication between the two.
“This is exactly what the president has told us to do," the governor responded. "Just yesterday, he was saying the governors are responsible for this. We’re on the front lines. We should just get it done. Then we did get it done and we get criticized. So I’m not sure how things could be different,” he said.
On "The View," Gov. Hogan added that he was well aware of the labs in his state, but said they are federal labs he "didn't have any access to." He said he was "taken aback" by Trump's tone on Monday, because he thought they had had a productive conversation. To him, it sounded like the president was the one who was "confused."
As you can see these two have been at odds throughout the crisis.
President Trump’s claim that states have enough tests to reopen “is just absolutely false,” says Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. “It’s not accurate to say there’s plenty of testing out there and the governors should just get it done. That’s just not being straightforward.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/0K48hRAgzI
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) April 19, 2020
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland SLAMS Trump: "To try to push this off and say the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing -- that somehow we aren’t doing our job, is just absolutely false" #TrumpCoronavirusTestFailure ??pic.twitter.com/dgIyxhfSL5
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) April 20, 2020
The White House revealed their plan to reopen America by May 1. States who have reached testing capacity and meet other select criteria may begin Phase 1.
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