Washington (CNN) Vice President Mike Pence attempted to reassure governors on a Monday call that the federal government was working as quickly as possible to get states coronavirus testing supplies. But even as the call was happening, President Donald Trump insisted that the responsibility for coronavirus testing belonged primarily to the states.
The call with the country governors , which included several officials on the White House coronavirus task force, was focused primarily on testing, according to multiple sources familiar with the call. One state official said it was the first time the testing issue had been laid out in such detail from a top official. The state official said the administration’s message was that they were working to get the states what they need – and that “it’s a partnership” between the federal and state governments.
But Trump , who was not on the call, has signific called on states to be primarily responsible for testing.
“Last month all you heard from the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats was, ‘Ventilators, Ventilators, Ventilators.’ They screamed it loud & clear, & thought they had us cold, even though it was the State’s task. But everyone got their V’s, with many to spare. Now they scream (…) ‘Testing, Testing, Testing,’ again playing a very dangerous political game, “Trump tweeted while the call was happening.
The President added: “States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing – But we will work with the Governors and get it done. This is easy compared to the fast production of thousands of complex Ventilators! “
According to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, the challenge many state leaders on the call expressed was getting “increased testing capacity.” Pennsylvania needs the reagents and test kits, and requests for similar testing supplies, he said, was the “general cry” from the other governors.
“We all expressed that hope today that we could move toward that and the vice president assured us that the federal government was moving as quickly as possible toward that end,” he added.
Pence said Monday’s call with governors was “very productive.”
“We heard again, not only the fact that we are making progress in slowing the spread. We’re seeing very encouraging signs even in hotspots around the country their cases are leveling and in some cases going down, “Pence said Monday afternoon at FEMA Headquarters following the call.
Governors have been pleading for federal testing help for more than a month, as a shortage of testing supplies and a backlog in private labs made it nearly impossible for the states to reach the level of testing needed to reduce social distancing guidelines. Last week, Trump grew frustrated after a slew of phone calls on reopening the economy grew repetitive, with business leaders, governors and lawmakers all stressing the need for more testing to reopen the economy.
This week, White House aides, under the direction of the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are trying to determine the best way to deal with the testing supply chain to get the needed elements to the states, according to a source familiar with the issue.
One hurdle has been figuring out how to accelerate the production of the testing supplies. The administration recently said it would employ the Defense Production Act to provide federal funding to a company to produce more testing swabs. But accelerating production for the reagents used for tests may pose a new challenge, given that they’re often manufactured overseas and are therefore not subject to the act.
While the President attempted to paint states’ requests for help with testing as a partisan issue, it hasn’t just been Democrats who have asked for federal assistance with testing. Governors on both sides of the aisle have said that without greater testing capabilities, businesses in their states will not be able to reopen.
Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, for example, said Sunday that a lack of testing is the No. 1 problem in America and “has been since the beginning of the crisis.”
“The administration, I think, is trying to ramp up testing. They are doing some things with respect to private labs,” Hogan said on CNN’s “State” of the Union. ” “But to try and push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing – somehow we aren’t doing our job – is just absolutely false.”
And Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee underscored the importance of increased coronavirus testing, tweeting after Monday’s call: “This morning, I spoke with @VP and our nation’s governors regarding expanded testing capacity & Tennessee’s aggressive push to test outside of traditional COVID – symptoms. Ramping up our testing & health care capacity is a critical step to get Tennesseans back to work safely. ”
CNN’s Jason Hoffman and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.
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