Bill de Blasio said Sunday that if Donald Trump doesn’t send more aid to New York City to combat coronavirus then ‘people will die’ of the disease who otherwise would have lived.
‘The truth is, and New Yorkers and all Americans deserve the blunt truth, it’s only getting worse,’ de Blasio said in an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press Sunday morning. ‘And, in fact, April and May are going to be a lot worse.’
‘Right now, we are a third of the cases in the country – that’s going to get worse. We’re about two-thirds or more the cases in New York State – that’s going to get worse,’ The New York City mayor continued.
‘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. I don’t get it,’ he claimed.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday morning that Donald Trump has not done enough to help his ‘hometown’ of New York City as it faces the most amount of cases of coronavirus than anywhere else in America
‘I can’t be blunt enough, if the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,’ de Blasio said, claiming Donald Trump needs to mobilize the military to help get supplies to New York City
‘The truth is, and New Yorkers and all Americans deserve the blunt truth, it’s only getting worse,’ de Blasio said.
De Blasio said he has requested Trump mobilize the military and enact the fullest of the Defense Production Act so New York can get more ventilators and other necessary medical equipment and supplies.
‘I can’t be blunt enough, if the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,’ he charged.
The nation’s largest city is suffering most from the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 12,300 of the nearly 27,000 nationally confirmed cases coming from New York State – with the majority congregated in New York City.
While there are close to 27,000 cases of coronavirus nationally, a little less than half of that is congregated in New York State
A little less than half of confirmed cases of coronavirus are in New York State
The city’s Democratic mayor has been critical of Trump’s response to the pandemic, and asserted he wants the president to order more military response.
‘The military has extraordinary medical capacity of its own that’s been honed in fighting wars. They can handle any situation,’ he insisted. ‘All military personnel who are medically trained should be sent to places where this crisis is deep – like New York – right now.’
‘The military is the best logistical organization in the nation. If there are ventilators being produced anywhere in the country, we need to get them to New York, not weeks from now or months from now, in the next ten days,’ he said, expressing the urgency of the situation. ‘And the only force in America that can do that is the military.’
‘Why are they at their bases? Why are they not being allowed to serve? I guarantee you they’re ready to serve, but the president has to give the order,’ he said, again putting the onus on Trump.
De Blasio also told a local ABC affiliate for the New York City area Sunday that hospitals in the area are ‘about 10 days away’ for shortages of fundamental supplies to handle both coronavirus cases and those hospitalized for other reasons.
‘April is going to be a lot worse than March,’ he said, reiterating the point he made earlier in the day that the worst is yet to come with the outbreak.
De Blasio brought up during his NBC interview Sunday morning that New York City is the president’s ‘hometown,’ – and while Trump is a native New Yorker, he and first lady Melania Trump recently changed their residency to Florida.
Trump has said a massive amount of ventilators have been ordered, but also urged state governors to work on obtaining their own supply – claiming it might be faster than the federal response.
The president and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo claim they have had good conversations over the last few weeks about getting help to New York.
De Blasio claimed that everyone except the administration is stepping up to help New York City as it faces the mounting challenges of a city-wide lock down and a swift increase of cases and deaths from the fast-spreading respiratory virus.
‘Every-day people are stepping up,’ he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Sunday morning. ‘It’s true companies are trying their damnedest to step up but the president is not stepping up.’
‘If you don’t order companies to maximize production of ventilators, surgical masks, all the things desperately needed, prioritize where it will go, it won’t happen in time. This is not something where everyone makes up their own mind, you hope the stuff arrives in time. We’re not getting shipments. We’re not getting the stuff we need,’ he continued.
‘If we don’t get more ventilators in the next ten days, people will die who don’t have to die.’