New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday ripped President Donald Trump for suggesting that medical workers are stealing face masks as a reason for why medical supplies are in short supply at hospitals.
Trump asked on Sunday if medical supplies are “going out the back door,” and suggested that hospitals may be “hoarding” ventilators.
“It’s insulting, it’s outrageous, it’s incredibly insensitive to people right now who are giving their all,” de Blasio told NY1. “Our healthcare workers are suffering — they’re literally watching some of their own lost to this disease. They’re fighting with all they got.”
"I want the people in New York to check — Governor [Andrew] Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio—that when a hospital that's getting 10,000 masks goes to 300,000 masks during the same period, people should check that because there's something going on,” Trump said in a press conference on Sunday, according to The Guardian.
He added, "I don't think it's hoarding, I think it's maybe worse than hoarding, but check it out. Check it out. I don't know, I don't know. I think that's for other people to figure out."
De Blasio said on Monday that he doesn’t “know what the president’s talking about.”
He said, “It’s not true. And it’s the wrong thing for him to do and he should just get back to work, be the commander in chief and get us help.”
The mayor added that he has repeatedly asked the federal government for assistance in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, and has asked for an additional 400 ventilators this week.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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