After days of pointedly telling the nation's governors that they were in charge of expanding testing resources for the Coronavirus, President Donald Trump on Monday expressed frustration and aggravation with the GOP Governor of Maryland after he purchased a half million virus tests from South Korea.
"The Governor from Maryland didn't really understand," the President said, arguing that Gov. Larry Hogan (R) should have used a list of labs handed over by the feds to governors in every state on Monday, as the President showed off a map of Maryland marked with testing labs.
During his regular White House briefing on the Coronavirus, the President clearly was aggravated by Hogan's move to buy the 500,000 tests, instead of using federal and commercial labs.
"He could have saved a lot of money," the President told one reporter. "No, I don't think he needed to go to South Korea. I think he needed to get a little knowledge would have been helpful."
Hogan, a more moderate Republican who has not been afraid to separate himself from the President, has been saying publicly for days that the White House was not helping states with testing.
Also the current head of the National Governors Association, Hogan told CNN the President's claim that states have more than enough testing capacity for the Coronavirus was 'absolutely false.'
“It’s not accurate to say there’s plenty of testing out there and the governors should just get it done. That’s just not being straightforward," Hogan said.
At a news conference on Monday afternoon, Hogan said his wife Yumi Hogan, had helped negotiate a deal with suppliers in her native South Korea.
"It should not have been this difficult," Hogan told reporters.
Testing remains maybe the biggest source of disagreement between the governors and the President on the Coronavirus, especially as states look to drop restrictions designed to hold down the spread of the virus.
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