White House Intercepting And Re-Routing Orders For Ventilators To States With Republican Governors; Feds Preventing Blue-State Governors From Placing Orders

The White House appears to be seizing life-saving medical equipment from public officials and hospitals across the country and re-routing them to states with Republican governors, some of whom could use an election-year boost. The federal government is also preventing states with Democratic governors from placing orders for supplies.

On March 31, it was reported that a White House official admitted to the Washington Post that Donald Trump is making sure "red" states get all the personal protective gear that they have requested, while denying essential equipment to "blue" states. The official said that Trump keeps close watch on certain states that he knows he needs to win to prevail in November.

Talking Points Memo has been working to discern the scope of this venal practice. Last week, TPM reported that a shipment of 500 ventilators to Colorado was intercepted and rerouted by the federal government. Governor Jared Polis (a Democrat) sent a letter pleading for the return of the equipment. Trump then tweeted that he was awarding 100 ventilators to Colorado at the behest of Republican Senator Cory Gardner, who is, according to TPM, "one of the most endangered Republicans on the ballot this year".

An editorial in the Denver Post stated that Trump was "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."

Will be immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator Gardner! https://t.co/Nj4EPxfZl6

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020

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? ...

Trump's messaging makes it feel as though he will watch with glee from the White House as people suffer in states being led by his enemies. ...

On March 27, Trump informed Americans that he had told Vice President Mike Pence, who is running the coronavirus task force, not to call governors in states that are not appreciative. ...

We find it hard to believe decisions are being made on such a morally bankrupt basis, but Trump is doing this nation no favors by giving us the impression that politics will drive his administration's response to a virus that has already killed thousands of Americans and will kill thousands more.

TPM:

It's hard to know whether President Trump even knew in this case that his pandemic task force had swiped away five times as many ventilators just days before. Indeed, we still don't whether this is all a central part of the White House's crisis strategy – grabbing supplies from blue states to hand out to endangered Republicans or red state allies – or simply a layering of corruption over the general chaos.

New examples of confiscations or rerouted orders crop up almost every day. Here's one about a shipment of test kit materials bound for the PeaceHealth hospital system in the Pacific Northwest seized and shipped, purportedly, to the East Coast. ...

For all the confusion, what is clear is that the federal government is demanding that states, localities and hospital systems find their own supplies while systematically interdicting those they do purchase and rerouting them in other directions while providing no explanation of what standards are being used to distribute them. At the same time, Republican officeholders keep turning up announcing windfalls of medical supplies courtesy of the President. ...

On April 4th, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) appealed to Jared Kushner and former congressional colleague turned White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for an infusion of supplies. (Zeldin represents New York's 1st district, which covers most of the eastern half of Long Island.) ...

We still know too little about what is happening and on what basis the White House is intercepting and distributing these scarce materials. One reason is that those who lose their shipments are afraid to speak out because they fear antagonizing the White House and losing any chance to get their masks and supplies returned.