Trump Skewers Schumer's Criticisms of Administration in Epic Response Letter

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, Thursday, March 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Even in a global pandemic, the petty politics continue.

It is becoming more clear every day that after their epic Russiagate fail, Democrats have every intention of leading yet another impeachment process once Trump wins again in November. This time their weapon of choice is coronavirus.

Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer sent Trump a letter on Thursday criticizing the administration’s response to the pandemic and dramatically demanding they provide more medical equipment to struggling states.

The existing federal leadership void has left America with an ugly spectacle in which states and cities are literally fending for themselves, often in conflict and competition with each other, when trying to procure precious medical supplies and equipment. The only way we will fix our PPE and ventilator shortage is with a data-driven, organized and robust plan from the federal government. Anything short of that will inevitably mean this problem will remain unsolved and prolong this crisis.

Schumer then went on to criticize Trump’s pick – Dr. Peter Navarro – for coordinating supply efforts as an “academic economist” whose expertise is not in relative areas. The New York Senator also claimed the President had dismissed the Defense Production Act as “not being needed” and demanded the President harness private industry to meet supply needs.

It must also be pointed out that while you continue to dismiss the Defense Production Act as not being needed, it is clear that the capacity of American Industry has not yet been fully harnessed, either in prioritizing and allocating urgently needed medical supplies and equipment, in rapidly expanding domestic manufacturing efforts to produce them, or in providing certainty to manufacturers – through purchase orders, purchase guaranties, or other mechanisms – that the US will use and distribute all the medical equipment and supplies they can produce. This is a failure that must be addressed quickly for the sake of our health care professionals and the people that are vulnerable to and already sick with this deadly disease.

Dear President Trump:

You need to designate a senior military officer as "czar" with broad and government-wide authority to lead both production and distribution of desperately needed medical equipment NOW. pic.twitter.com/h92q37OZrM

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 2, 2020

Schumer’s letter had blatantly political overtones, especially considering Trump has already invoked the DPA and has been updating Americans daily on the progress in developing ventilators, PPEs and other medical supplies. Perhaps the Senator is depending on his base being ignorant of the current situation now that many liberal outlets have decided not to cover the daily briefings live.

But even in the middle of a pandemic, Trump is still being Trump and the President seemed unsatisfied to let that letter stand knowing there would be little media curiosity. He took it upon himself to deliver his own letter to Schumer on Thursday and, in true Trump fashion, he minced no words, thanking the Senator for his “public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way.” The President set out a list of bullet points explaining all of the ways the administration had already been doing what Schumer was demanding, including authorizing the DPA (which should already be common knowledge to anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention). He dismissed Schumer’s notion that the U.S. needs a “coronavirus czar,” saying he’d already appointed Vice President Pence to head the task force and, by all accounts, he was doing a “spectacular job.” He also reminded Schumer that there is a senior military officer in charge of purchasing and distribution.

If you remember, my team gave you this information, but for public relation purposes you chose to ignore it.

We have given New York many things, including hospitals, medical centers, medical supplies, record numbers of ventilators, and more. You should have had New York much better prepared than you did, and as Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said yesterday, New York was very late in its fight against the virus. As you are aware, the Federal Government is merely a back-up for state governments. Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.

If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the “invisible enemy.” No wonder AOC and other are thinking about running against you in the primary. If they did, they would likely win.

And then the President ended with this mic drop moment:

I’ve known you for many years, but never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York, until I became President.

And….scene!

*Below is the original tweet from CNN reporter Phil Mattingly. Although the letter appears to be authentic it has not been posted by the White House or President Trump as of the time of this publication.