President Trump is taking issue with US Senator Jon Tester regarding statements he made in a press release, last Friday, diminishing the COVID-19 response by the federal government.
Sen. Tester implied that Montana is suffering a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the ability to test and contact trace, because of a lack of “federal leadership and coordination.” He urged President Trump “to implement a centralized purchasing and distribution system to better allocate resources and make sure health care workers have the tools they need to combat the virus.”
“Senator Jon Tester made several misleading and false claims about the federal government’s response to COVID-19,” said John Horstman, White House Director of Media Affairs and Special Assistant to the President, on Tuesday.
Sen. Tester overlooked the assistance the federal government has made to Montana. Said Horstman, “Partnering with industry, the US government has surged shipments of PPE to Montana with over 3 million masks (N95 and Surgical/Procedural), 95,000 face shields, almost 800,000 gowns, and 65 million pairs of gloves, which were delivered July 24th.”
Horstman pointed out that as a result of the support directed by President Trump over 6,000 tests were conducted in a single day last week in Montana, and even more significant, the “positivity rate” in Montana has stayed below the recommended 5% since April.
While Sen. Tester took credit in the press release for “nearly $2 million for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Laboratory to help with testing and immunization support” — funding which came from the federal government, he forgot to mention the $1.25 billion that has been sent to Gov. Steve Bullock under the CARES Act.
While the CARES funds are to be used to assist the state in dealing with the virus, the Montana Republican Party recently released a report decrying that Gov. Bullock has yet to disperse most of the funds, which could also provide equipment and supplies. Gov. Bullock’s funds could also assist the rural hospitals and clinics about which Sen. Tester said he was concerned in touting a “recently introduced” resolution in Congress, condemning the Trump Administration.
According to their press release, the Montana Republicans charged that while Gov. Bullock has made numerous announcements about “allocating” funds, only about 10 percent of the $1.25 billion “has been put in the hands of those that need it.”
Horstman went on to itemize some of President Trump’s policies and achievements in dealing with the epidemic.
He said the Trump Administration has implemented a national defense strategy against the “China Virus” including (1) a testing strategy that strategically uses private labs to test thereby increasing the amount and speed of testing to levels not seen in American history, (2) securing and producing PPE and other medical equipment (ventilators) in America (Puritan Swabs, Ventech/GM Ventillators, 3M Masks) and delivering them to Americans, and (3) accelerating vaccine development by funding promising candidates.
Also, the Trump Administration followed “long- standing emergency management practices ”in distributing PPE to the hardest hit communities.
FEMA uses a centralized purchasing and distribution systems that closely tracks all shipments.
And, as soon as the CARES Act funds have been made available, the federal government has used them to stand up factories and deliver PPE on time.
And, concluded Horstman, “The CDC has an effective and robust testing and contact tracing system that has limited the spread of the virus and kept the death rate among the lowest in the world.”
Senator Jon Tester, along with his Democrat Party cronies and the Mainstream Media will never give President Trump his due for any accomplishment. They all seem to answer only to their puppet masters – Big Tech, Cheap Labor Lobby, Globalist bankers, Open Borders Cartel, and the most ruthless master of them all, George Soros.
Jon Tester has received at least $18,000 from the infamous Soros Fund. We have to ask, What is Soros getting for that campaign donation? Tester is by no means the only national politician on the Soros payroll but he can hardly claim to be all in for Montana accepting large sums from the well-known anti-American Marxist.