>> There's been a lot of misinformation coming from both Donald Trump and Vice President
Mike Pence when it comes to the availability of testing. Watch.
>> As our experts said yesterday, America's testing capability and capacity is fully sufficient
to begin opening up the country totally. >> And we believe today, as Dr Birx has said,
as Dr Fauci and others have said, is that there is a sufficient capacity of testing
across the country today for any state in America to go to a phase one level.
>> That is a lie. And it's a lie based on what we're hearing from governors, including
Republican governors, like Larry Hogan from Maryland. So let's hear from both Hogan and
from Governor Northam. Take a look. >> Governor Northam just called that delusional,
the idea that states have enough testing.
What do you think? Do you have enough testing to move into phase one?
>> The administration, I think, is trying to ramp up testing. They are doing some things
with respect to private labs, but to try to push this off to say that the governors have
plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing somehow and we aren't doing
our job, it's just absolutely false.
Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests,
not only from the federal government but from every private lab in America and from all
across the world. And we continue to do so. Look, we've increased our testing in Maryland
by 5,000% over the past month, but it's nowhere near where it needs to be.
But it's not accurate to say there's plenty of testing out there, and the governor should
just get it done. That's just not being straightforward. >> So Cenk, we're testing about 150,000 people
per day. Researchers from Harvard say that we need to triple that number in order to
have adequate testing.
>> Yeah, I read in a different story, quadruple the number 500 to 600,000 tests everyday.
Guys, if you're wondering why, is it just gratuitous? No, is it political? No, again,
Hogan is a Republican governor of Maryland. The reason is that's the best way to combat
the disease, because then you know who has it, you know who they've been in contact with,
and it's easier to contain and mitigate the disease, which allows everyone else to go
out, and it allows people to get their jobs back.
It allows the country to get opened again, but you cannot do it if there's no testing,
then you're flying blind. That is why all the governors are saying, for God's sake,
get us more tests. And when the federal government says they have nothing to do with it, it's
not true on a couple of levels.
One, of course they should coordinate the states. That's their whole job in a pandemic
like this. But number two, a lot of times, the federal government is buying a lot of
these supplies instead of the states, superseding the states, and then giving it out based on
political favors.
And we saw this happen with ventilators in Colorado, for example. We told you about that
last week, where Colorado was gonna buy 500 ventilators. FEMA, the federal government
stepped in, bought them instead, and then gave 100 to give for Cory Gardner, the Republican
Senator from Colorado to give to his state, so Colorado got 400 less ventilators, and
the Republicans bragged about how many ventilators they gave them.
So they're playing these kinda tricks with all of these medical equipment and also with
the tests, and it's totally unacceptable. We've gotta get as many tests in the field
as humanly possible. Not just for health reasons, but for the health of the economy as well.
>> Yeah, exactly.
And I mean, look, the testing has been a problem since day one. Donald Trump refuses to take
responsibility for all of his mistakes early on, including the inability to get widespread
testing available for everyone. And he's gotten away in the past with just lying and saying
the opposite of what's actually happening and then people believe him and he gets away
with all of his mistakes.
I think in this case, it's gonna be much harder for him to get away with lying, because people
are experiencing it in real time. If you suspect you have coronavirus in many places throughout
the country, it's nearly impossible for you to get the testing you need, including if
you're a healthcare worker yourself.
So people are seeing their family members die as a result of this incompetence from
the Trump administration and I'm glad that Republicans are speaking out as well.