>> Trump told a group of governors in a morning phone call that they should seek to find respirators
and other vital equipment needed to treat those who have contracted coronavirus.
He basically told them, if you need those respirators, it might be better for you to
seek them on your own rather than try to get them through the federal government.
The New York Times reported this story and they write that respirators, ventilators and
all of the equipment, try getting it yourselves, Trump told the governors.
We will be backing you but try getting it yourselves, point of sales, much better, much
more direct, if you can get it yourself.
Trump used much of the call to repeat the same upbeat rhetoric, he has offered in public
assuring the governor's quote, we're going to get it remedied and hopefully very quickly.
Now part of the reason why we're experiencing widespread closures throughout the country
is because we need to slow the spread of COVID-19.
If we don't slow the spread, keep in mind that our healthcare system is not prepared
to deal with being over burdened with an influx of people who have contracted the virus, that's
why it's really important to slow the spread, right?
We don't have enough respirators, we don't have enough of the equipment necessary, and
we're trying to do what we can to prevent people from getting it in the first place
so our healthcare system isn't overburdened.
>> I get the distribution, if you wanna have the distribution of respirators, leave it
to a more local system.
But in terms of getting it, just the words he uses, like try and get it on your own.
I don't wanna hear try to.
>> Right.
I want to hear listen, we looked into how many respirators there are, here's where they
are, here's who sells them.
And we have decided that the best way for you is to call this number right here right
now and get it done.
And think about it.
Like, what does this unleash?
This unleashes a bunch of private companies that have a bunch of respirators.
I mean, we all saw that story, we were talking about it, that person who bought like 17,000
Purells and is just like sitting on them in a bunker and has no place to sell, like like
there will be a, there's a hoarding, I mean that is capitalism and there and you're gonna
have to have like GE who makes respirators sit there and go like if I sell to California,
they have a lot of people so maybe they'll be able to drive the price down on me.
Maybe I go to small states first and they have smaller orders so I can have higher margins,
like that's the kind of stuff we're going to hear
>> I mean yeah, those types of decisions shouldn't be made based on profit motive, but there
is a quick update to this story.
During Donald Trump's press conference on coronavirus today, he was asked about this
phone call and what he told governors.
And one of the things that he said was it just might be easier for them to get it on
their own instead of through the federal government, and then he said, but we're ordering a lot
of them, we're ordering a lot of respirators, right.
First of all, every country in the world right now is ordering those respirators.
So it doesn't make anyone feel better knowing that the federal government is now trying
to order more respirators to ensure that we're prepared, to deal with people who end up having
or contracting the coronavirus.
>> Can I present a wild hypothesis as to why he approached it this way?
Wild.
So the basis for even coming in and saying this, if you think about it, he's saying,
hey, if you can do it, get it on your own, that assumption would mean that governors
of these states are just sitting there twiddling their thumbs, going, I don't know how or what
I'm gonna do, because that's what he does.
So when he's like maybe you guys should spring into action, there's these things called respirators
and I heard that this one of the things that's necessary for this whole thing.
So if you can, go try and find them on your own before we do anything.
We'll back you, back you meaning what?
There's no concrete, there's nothing concrete behind it.
And I interject when you said, he said a lot, what's that number?
If you have a task force that's looking for a way to remedy the situation or quell it,
or treat enough people, usually you have specific numbers.
If you're a math or science person, you're looking for a task and get to the end of it,
there's no scientist that's gonna say so there's about this many things in this whole petri
dish and, and if the guys who are developing, trying to develop a vaccine, have gotten somewhat
close, I'm sure they're not looking at whatever research they're doing and going, there's
a lot here.
No, they're giving you something specific and they're actually determining something
definite because there needs to be a precise thing to get something done.
>> He's already been clear in saying that he doesn't take responsibility for anything.
That was a huge story last week, but just to further double down on that, he keeps going
back to the Obama administration.
So during the same press conference, he said, the following about Obama, according to The
New York Times without directly faulting Obama, he said, quote, we broke down a system that
was broken, very badly broken and vowed to create one that quote I think it's going to
be the talk of the world.
>> We're the talk of the world, all right, but just not in the way that he is hoping.
That's for sure.
>> Notorious, they are still talking about you, but not in the way you think, bud.
Now I think this is the story of his life with his biggest fear,
>> I think it's going to be the talk of the world based on what, because of what, because
what will happen.
If you think someone's going to talk to the world and you've got something figured out,
you might say what that is.
Or if you don't you won't, like he didn't