Asa Hutchinson: I ‘Applaud’ Biden for ‘Depoliticizing’ the COVID Effort

Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “MPT Daily” that he applauded President Joe Biden for “depoliticizing” the United States’ efforts to combat the COVID pandemic.

Hutchinson said, “The public needs to understand that during this difficult time, the governors and the administration, we have to work closely together and that was the most significant thing about the meeting with the president yesterday with the governors, with the administration, that we’re all focusing on solutions. What the governors need are flexibility. As the president indicated, many of the solutions have to be state-oriented.”

He continued, “Secondly, we need the support from the federal government in terms of the supply chain. Whenever we have a shortage of monoclonal antibodies or other therapeutics, it is the federal government that helps us to get that supply. Testing is in scarce supply right now. We need their help to make sure that there is adequate supply, not just for the federal solutions and the president’s goal of 500 million rapid tests that are available, but we have those available in our supply chain at the state level so we can put them in libraries and make them available more readily to our citizens. And then, you know, it is the consistent message that is important.”

Hutchinson added, “I applaud the president. While we disagree on some strategy issues, I do appreciate him depoliticizing this effort. We’re all in this together, and it doesn’t make any difference of your partisan stripe. Let’s get the vaccinations out, and there is a greater cohesiveness about the importance of vaccinations now than ever before.”

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