Welcome to english.eastday.com.Today is
Follow us @
Contribute to us!

Latest

Shanghai

Business

Culture

China

World

Pictures

Topics

Life

Services

Home >> auto >> Article
Spotlight: Partisanship, federal-state divergences complicate U.S. efforts in COVID-19 battle
From:Xinhua  |  2020-03-31 15:09

Video PlayerClose

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Partisanship and divergences between the White House and state governments have complicated U.S. efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which has taken thousands of lives in the nation.

U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday for her criticism of his administration's response to the situation, calling her "a sick puppy."

"It's a sad thing," Trump said in an interview on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning. "She's a sick puppy in my opinion. She's got a lot of problems."

In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Pelosi accused Trump of downplaying the public health crisis in a way that has cost American lives, claiming that "his denial at the beginning was deadly."

"Because when he made the other day when he was signing the bill, he said just think 20 days ago everything was great. No, everything wasn't great," said Pelosi, referring to a 2 trillion-U.S.-dollar bipartisan economic stimulus package that Trump signed into law last week.

Pelosi and other Democrats were not invited to attend the signing ceremony at the White House.

The already strained relationship between the country's two most powerful leaders has intensified since September last year when Pelosi signed off on an impeachment investigation into Trump.

The Democratic-controlled House voted to impeach the president, but the Republican-dominated Senate acquitted him.

Trump and Pelosi reportedly have not spoken to each other for nearly six months.

U.S. lawmakers stuck to party lines on the latest feud between Trump and Pelosi.

In an interview on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham accused Pelosi of being "the first politician to blame another politician for people dying."

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, said Twitter that it is too early for the White House to gloat over the fight against COVID-19.

Waters said Trump should try to "get more corps to develop masks, respirators, & everything needed to protect hospital workers trying to save lives."

As of late Monday night, the United States has reported more than 164,000 cases of COVID-19, with over 3,100 deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

New York State has both the most cases and the most deaths, with over 67,000 and 1,200 respectively, according to the update.

During a press briefing at the White House on Monday, Trump said over 1 million Americans have been tested for COVID-19. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar later said the nation is testing "nearly 100,000 samples a day."

The president said his administration has delivered around 8,100 ventilators to the states, and hundreds more are going to Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, Louisiana, and Connecticut shortly.

The announcement came only days after Trump questioned several governors' pleas for more medical supplies, including ventilators.

"I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they're going to be," Trump said in a Fox news' phone interview last week. "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes they'll have two ventilators, and now all of a sudden they're saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'"

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who reiterated the state's need for 30,000 ventilators, has said the devices are needed "for the apex."

"The apex isn't here," Cuomo, a Democrat, said last week. "So we're gathering them in the stockpile so when we need them they will be there."

Furthermore, Trump has recently singled out Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, accusing the two Democrats of not doing enough to address the crisis. Both Inslee and Whitmer have called on the Trump administration to provide more resources to their states.

Inslee, responding to Trump's criticism, said that he will not be distracted by personal attacks from the battle to "beat the virus."

Share