New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that the federal government has not done enough to ramp up production of life-saving medical supplies like masks and ventilators and asking the president to deploy the military across the country to help in the public-health crisis.
“The president of the United States is from New York City and he will not lift a finger to help his hometown, and I don’t get it,” de Blasio said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I don’t get it. Right now, I have asked repeatedly for the military to be mobilized, for the Defense Production Act to be used to its fullest to get us things like ventilators, so people can live who would die otherwise,” he continued. “If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise — senior citizens, folks who are members of families.”
De Blasio, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, said the president should order all military personnel with medical training to deploy to hot spots in America and to help the country ferry ventilators to them.
“Why are they at their bases? Why are they not being allowed to serve? I guarantee you they are ready to serve, but the president has to give the order,” he said….
Read more and watch the video at NBCNews.com: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nyc-mayor-if-trump-doesn-t-act-people-will-die-n1166001