Trump is using the national stockpile as a ventilator slush fund to help Republicans get re-elected

[SouthernCal_Dem]

For the second time this week, President Donald Trump granted a vulnerable Republican lawmaker’s request to provide their state with ventilators, leading critics to attribute political motivations to the president’s allocation of scarce life-saving medical resources.

Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday declared that the state had secured 100 ventilators from the federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile to help the state respond to an expected spike in COVID-19 coronavirus cases. In announcing the acquisition of the lifesaving equipment, Gov. Ducey specifically thanked President Trump for providing the machines and thanks Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) for lobbying the president on the issue.

“Huge news for Arizona! I spoke with [President Trump] on Wednesday afternoon to request additional ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile,” McSally wrote. “Today, POTUS delivers with 100 ventilators headed to AZ. Thank you to President Trump and [Vice President Mike Pence] for hearing our call.”

As previously reported by Law&Crime this week, the Trump administration stopped Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis from privately purchasing 500 ventilators, claiming them for the National Stockpile. Trump then announced on Wednesday that he was sending Colorado 100 of the ventilators, but in doing so, the president made it clear that he was doing so at the request of Republican Sen. Cory Gardner.

Both Colorado and Arizona are considered swing states in the upcoming 2020 election and Sens. McSally and Gardner are both in toss-up elections that hold the Senate majority in the balance.


https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/critics-say-trump-is-using-stockpile-as-ventilator-slush-fund-for-republican-lawmakers/

[procon]

1. This reeks of corruption and a mass of legal questions.

How can Trump use taxpayer money intended for medical equipment, and divert it into his own branded campaign gifts to loyalists?

[SouthernCal_Dem]

3. Definitely illegal

I’m sure Susan Collins is “concerned”.

[crickets]

2. Why is this allowed to go on? It's insane. nt

[scarletwoman]

4. This is absolutely infuriating - and most certainly criminal.

Thanks to the Senate Republicans there's no way to stop it, is there.

This is insane - the rule of law is being dismantled before our eyes.

[Newest Reality]

5. Indubitably!!!

The GOP/Trump have their cannons aimed right now at our entire system, including our democracy. They have the playbooks, (like Governors mimicking Trump's tactics) and their "news" outlets, plus hundreds of foundations and front organizations.

This is going to be the biggest power grab in the history of this country and the shakeup form this crises will be fully exploited towards that aim. The GOP is complicit with Trump because, everything he says and does is compliant with their impetus to remain in power despite their obsolescence in a changing electorate that indicates demographics will bring the kind of party to its conclusion.

That's why they don't seem like an "opposition party" as a contrast to democrats. They ARE the opposition to our country, most of its people and democracy and they are going to pull out all the stops in the next few months to make democrats into an illegitimate party and cast THEM as the usurpers, which is the typical, Republican method of deception/deflection. We are dealing with a real life gang of villains that rival some real and fictitious ones of the past.

The end game is obvious. If that's shocking then, you don't have enough information, that's all. How to stop this egregious overthrow? Well, find out more first. Nothing is going to happen as long as various, deceptive and intentional fronts they are crafting and displaying are taken to be actual rather than intentional.

This time around, we are not dealing with partisan politics at usual. We are far beyond that and at a critical juncture that needs to be contended with early and with persistence.

[2naSalit]

8. +1

But I would argue that it's not going to be, it already is.

[demtenjeep]

6. he is a pathetic failure

or a fucking asshole or both

[SharonAnn]

7. Of course.. it's what he always does.