According to Trump and his administration — They have maintained that FEMA’s authority would be used as a ‘back-up’ or supporting role for States
and that State Governors should acquire what they need for their own states. Fine.
Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis reported that after he secured 500 ventilators last week, FEMA came in and took the ventilators away from the state’s purchase.
Colorado was making a deal with a manufacturer for an order of much-needed ventilators when the Federal Emergency Management Agency swooped in and took it themselves, Gov. Jared Polis told CNN on Friday night…
“We can’t compete against our own federal government,” Polis said. “So either work with us, or don’t do anything at all. But this middle ground where they’re buying stuff out from under us and not telling us what we’re going to get, that’s really challenging to manage our hospital surge and our safety of our health care workers in that kind of environment.”
So at first this looks like a screw up or mix up between the Federal government and the State, but then Cory Gardner went on Fox to praise the efforts of Trump to get Colorado 100 ventilators, without mentioning losing the other 400 ventilators our Governor had secured…
(Hat tip to Colorado Pols for their continuing coverage)
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1247868300647968771
Trump’s tweet:
Will be immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator Gardner!
Donald Trump ‘awards’ Colorado 100 Ventilators at the personal request of Republican Senator Cory Gardner.
This would not have been an issue if Gardner had not gone on TV to promote this. And now the editorial boards STATEWIDE are calling out Gardner and the Trump administration for playing politics with ventilators and people’s lives during a pandemic…
From the Denver Post (a former endorser of Gardner)
Editorial: Trump is playing a disgusting political game with our lives
President Donald Trump is treating life-saving medical equipment as emoluments he can dole out as favors to loyalists. It’s the worst imaginable form of corruption — playing political games with lives. For the good of this nation during what should be a time of unity, he must stop.
Trump had only days before prevented Colorado Gov. Jared Polis from securing 500 ventilators from a private company, instead, taking the ventilators for the federal government. Polis sent a formal letter pleading for medical equipment, but the president took the time to make clear he was responding to a request from Gardner. We are left to believe that if Colorado didn’t have a Republican senator in office, our state would not be getting these 100 ventilators. How many ventilators would we be getting if we had a Republican governor and a second Republican senator? Would that indicate we had more Republican lives in our state worth saving for Trump and resources would start flowing?
The Grand Junction Sentinel
After Trump's tweet, Gardner lambasted for ventilator issue
Gardner went on Fox News Wednesday to talk about that matter.
“The governor has been searching for ventilators and FEMA has also been searching for ventilators,” Gardner said. “I talked to the president last night about the Colorado need for ventilators, and of course I’m very thankful that he provided that last night. We’re going to continue to work with the president for more and continue to meet Colorado’s needs.”
(The Sentinel included this quote as well)
“Cory Gardner is such a spineless yes-man to Donald Trump that he is literally thanking Trump for only stealing 400 ventilators from the state,” said Zach Hudson, spokesman for American Bridge 21st Century, a Washington, D.C.-based super PAC that supports Democratic candidates. “Gardner’s pathetic groveling to the president who just hijacked hundreds of desperately needed ventilators from this state highlights why Gardner is currently losing his re-election campaign by double digits.”
From 9 News’ Kyle Clark:
...instead we will be getting 100 of them (ventilators). And the President is directing our appreciation to his political ally (Gardner) who is up for re-election this fall. It is laughably clumsy politics….
If the only way to do it (get the ventilators) was for President Trump to get the control and for Cory Gardner to get the credit for the ventilators, well then everyone is getting what they desperately need.
So it appears that everything that people were suspecting the President of doing, playing favorites, restricting aid to people who need his ‘help’ and playing politics in a pandemic are all confirmed by these revelations.
My question is this — Did Gardner ask for this favor to help him politically in this re-election cycle or…
was he going along with President Trump’s plan to make Trump look good?
My guess is the latter. It seems it always comes back to Trump and his plans.
Either way, a local issue, a speed bump in the news cycle became a major pothole, that was easily preventable if Gardner had not gone on Fox to celebrate the ‘100’ ventilators “given” to us by the President.