You fell for the fake news media and their usual tactics. It's not like it's hard to listen to his actual speech and draw your own conclusions about the media and the POTUS.
https://www.thepostmillennial.com/busted-again-the-new-york-...
tl;dr he said: “We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.”
There is no strategic reserve of respirators or respitory therapists anyway. The military probably has some for deployments, but not in meaningful quantities for a national scope.
I'm not worried about context. I'm concerned with malicious misquoting in order to smear the POTUS, by a once reputable newspaper with very low standards for journalists these days. The president said he'd support the states but if they also try to purchase directly rather than just wait for the federal system to do its work, it might be better. There's absolutely no way one could honestly interpret this in a negative way.
I wasn’t a fan of GW Bush, but his response to 9/11 was on point. An emergency was declared and those emergency powers were used immediately to procure items needed for recovery or ensure that states and cities had access to cash to meet their disaster obligations. Only now is the federal government slowly engaging.
It’s not a smear, it’s a fact — this administration is paralyzed into inaction by nepotism, lack of effective command and fundamental incompetence. Thousands will suffer as the economy implodes or will die or be hurt by the pandemic as a consequence.
Comparing the Federal response, you have a lack of coordinated response, inaccurate information from the POTUS, contradictory responses from Federal agencies, a focus on self-praise and prayer, etc. Last night (3/15), the government had a stockpile of venilators. This morning (3/16), reports are that the POTUS told states to find their own. Having a politician like the Vice President that knows how to speak effectively be the sole speaker would be better, even with the incompetent response.
People and markets want to hear measured responses. After the shock of 9/11 wore off, people took solace and unified around the government's response at the Federal, State, Local level. In this, we're leaving Governors, mayors and companies to fend for themselves.