Trump hits Illinois governor after criticism: ‘I hear him complaining all the time’
President Trump repeatedly lashed out at Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Sunday during a press conference, shortly after the governor criticized Trump over comments made about the coronavirus response.
During Sunday’s daily press briefing on the administration’s efforts to stop the virus’s spread in the U.S., Trump took aim at Pritzker over his past criticism of the administration’s response to the outbreak.
“There is a governor, I hear him complaining all the time, Pritzker. He is always complaining,” Trump told reporters before listing off a number of projects the federal government was assisting with in the state.
“Like in Illinois, the governor couldn’t do his job, so we had to help him,” he said at a later point in the briefing.
Trump attacks @GovPritzker, who criticized federal coronavirus response efforts on TV today: “There is a governor, I hear him complaining all the time, Pritzker. He is always complaining … He has not performed well.” pic.twitter.com/9rysI88qjp
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 5, 2020
Trump’s comments came hours after Pritzker himself criticized the president’s comments about federal and state disaster stockpiles, the latter of which he said were insufficiently stocked and unprepared for the outbreak.
“The president does not understand the word federal. Federal Emergency Management Agency. We have a state emergency management agency, but if he were right, why would we ever need a Federal Emergency Management Agency?” Pritzker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s because individual states can’t possibly do what the federal government can do.”
“There’s no way that we can stockpile in anticipation of a pandemic that no one anticipated, and yet the federal government is responsible for doing precisely that,” he added.
Trump has feuded with a number of Democratic governors during the coronavirus outbreak, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, while urging other governors to be “appreciative” of the federal government’s response.
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