Trump has repeatedly said an empty stockpile hampered his pandemic response. Budget cuts had affected it, but shelves weren’t bare, former officials said.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly complained that he inherited an empty national stockpile from the Obama administration, hamstringing his pandemic response because of a lack of emergency supplies.
“The cupboard was bare. The other administration, the last administration, left us nothing,” Trump told ABC News’ David Muir on Tuesday. “We didn’t have ventilators. We didn’t have medical equipment. The tests were broken — you saw that. We had broken tests. They left us nothing. We’ve taken it and we’ve built an incredible stockpile, a stockpile like we’ve never had before.”
It’s a sweeping claim Trump has made several times when faced with criticism that the government was slow to help states hit hard by the coronavirus and in dire need to supplies like personal protective equipment for front line workers and ventilators for an influx of patients — and one that former Obama administration and past news reports dispute. Continue reading.