President Donald Trump took aim at Gov. Larry Hogan during the White House’s coronavirus press briefing Monday.
After criticizing the White House on CNN Sunday, telling Jake Tapper “it’s not accurate [for Trump] to say there’s plenty of testing out there,” Hogan announced Monday that Maryland has obtained 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea. Hogan negotiated the deal with his wife Yumi Hogan, a Korean immigrant.
When asked by reporters if he thought Hogan needed to go to South Korea to obtain 500,000 coronavirus tests, Trump said the governor didn’t understand Maryland’s testing capacity.
“I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea, I think he needed to get a little knowledge would have been helpful,” Trump said.
During the press briefing, Vice President Mike Pence displayed a list—which was distributed to governors—of facilities where, according to the White House, states can find coronavirus testing.
President Trump said he and VP Pence provided all 50 governors with a list of labs to find additional testing capacity.
He noted: "The governor from Maryland didn't really understand the list. He didn't really understand too much about what was going on…" pic.twitter.com/spQUMPRHl3— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) April 21, 2020
Hogan was asked about Trump’s comments Monday during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Hogan said “more than half” of facilities identified on the White House’s list in Maryland “were all federal facilities,” like the National Institutes of Health.
“They were either federal health facilities that we’ve been desperately trying to get help from or military installations. None of which were state owned labs or facilities where we could actually do any testing, but I’m not sure what the president’s referring to,” Hogan said.
Hogan doubled down on his decision to strike a deal to obtain the tests from South Korea.
“The president has been repeatedly saying that the states should […] take the lead on testing, that the federal government would back us up but that the governors needed to go out and get their own testing and we’ve all been out there, the governors, trying to compete with one another all around the country and around the globe to try and get testing. This is a huge development for us,” Hogan said.
On Monday evening, Hogan tweeted the following response to Trump:
I’m grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs and generously offering Maryland use of them for #COVID19 testing. Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea.
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) April 21, 2020
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