Booker on Coronavirus Response: Trump Is ‘Not Rising to This Challenge’

Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) accused President Donald Trump of “not rising to this challenge,” while discussing his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mitchell said, “Let’s talk about the terrible spike of deaths in New Jersey this week, passing 3,000 — the testing shortage. Here you’ve got the mayor now —rather, the president telling mayors and governors it’s up to you. The governors are in charge. Governors don’t have access to tests. They can’t get tests from China the way the federal government can.”

Booker said, “There’s an old wisdom that says you do not have to attend every argument you’re invited to. This is a president who is not assuming his moral authority that we really need him to do, not doing the levels of coordination and rationalizing of resources in our country, not rising to this challenge. But as we found out when he tried to assume constitutional powers he does not have, governors make the decisions. I hope every single one of them let’s science be their guide, the well being of their citizens be their guide and do the balance of what they have to do about what’s best based upon facts and data for the residents of their states.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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