- California Governor Gavin Newsom was reportedly asked to do the Trump administration “a favor” to get federal help with coronavirus testing, The New York Times reported.
- The Times said the White House told an adviser that Newsom had to personally call Trump, ask for the swabs, and thank him, which he did.
- The Times story recounted how the Trump administration largely left states to fend for themselves without a clear national strategy that ultimately doomed their response to the coronavirus.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom reportedly had to “do a favor” for the Trump administration to receive federal aid in obtaining proof samples of coronavirus, The New York Times reported.
The Times said that when the Newsom administration initially requested assistance from the Trump administration to obtain 350,000 COVID-19 test samples in April, White House adviser Jared Kushner told Bob Kocher, a senior adviser to Newsom , that “federal aid would depend on the governor acting a favor.”
Kocher told the Times that the “favor” involved Newsom personally calling Trump, asking for the swabs, and thanking him.
According to the Times, Newsom called Trump to thank him for his help and then publicly acknowledged the president for a “substantial increase” in test supplies at a press conference.
Trump has touted his administration’s work to help states obtain such supplies. But The Times story recounted how the Trump administration’s relatively unobtrusive approach to managing the virus and largely leaving states to fend for themselves without a clear national strategy ultimately doomed their response to the coronavirus and led to the resurgence in the cases seen today.
At the beginning of the pandemic in March and April, other governors struggled to get hold of supplies, either having to go through obstacles with the federal government or having to make a direct offer against other states and even the federal government to access teams of personal protection, medical supplies and testing supplies.
And at least six states have said that some of the orders they managed to place for fans or PPE were intercepted by the federal government, leaving some to create private channels to secure their supplies.
Also in April, Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan organized test kits that supply half a million COVID-19 tests to be shipped privately from South Korea.
And after a shipment of the N-95 bound for Massachusetts was seized and taken by federal officials in New York, the state governor said, the New England Patriots football team stepped in and used his private plane to fly to China to get the masks and bring them back to Boston.
