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April 08, 2020 11:00 AM UTC

Three Cheers: Gardner Loses 400 Ventilators To Trump

  • 13 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: In a clip sure to outrage anyone who knows the full context of the story, Sen. Cory Gardner went on Fox News this morning to celebrate the 100 ventilators he snagged as a personal favor from President Donald Trump–presumably out of the 500 the Trump administration bought out from under Colorado:

The closest Gardner comes to acknowledging the original sin of Trump’s swiping of 500 ventilators is to mention at about 1:30 that “The governor has been searching for ventilators. FEMA has been searching for ventilators.” Not a single word about how those two searches intersected, and Colorado lost. Without that part of the story, understanding that Colorado is getting back 20% of the ventilators they lost due to the federal government’s actions, this narrative is misleading in the extreme.

A textbook lie of omission, told on national television.

—–

UPDATE: 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark lays the smack down:

—–

President Trump and Cory Gardner in Colorado Springs (2/20/20)

The Denver Post reported over the weekend on an order of 500 ventilators sought by the state of Colorado to forestall a shortage of the devices in our state–an order that was co-opted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for federal use “out from under” Colorado, after President Donald Trump told states they should try to acquire medical equipment to respond to COVID-19 ourselves:

Colorado was making a deal with a manufacturer for an order of much-needed ventilators when the Federal Emergency Management Agency swooped in and took it themselves, Gov. Jared Polis told CNN on Friday night.

It was one thing for states to be competing among themselves for vital resources to fight the novel coronavirus, Polis said. Now they’re competing against the federal government, too.

“Either be in or out,” Polis told CNN’s Don Lemon. “Either you’re buying them and you’re providing them to states and you’re letting us know what we’re going to get and when we’re going to get them. Or you stay out, and let us buy them.”

Yesterday, Sen. Cory Gardner was asked during a telephone town hall about the federal government’s swiping of 500 Colorado-bound ventilators:

But today, as The Hill’s Justine Coleman reports:

President Trump on Wednesday announced that 100 ventilators will “immediately” be sent to Colorado after Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) made a request for the medical equipment.

In a response to Gardner’s tweet announcing the approval of National Guard assistance in the state, Trump posted, “Will be immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator Gardner!”

…The Colorado governor’s press secretary, Conor Cahill, said Tuesday that Polis had been notified Colorado’s orders for ventilators will not be granted in the coming weeks.

In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence last week, Gov. Jared Polis in fact requested a total of 10,000 ventilators, along with “associated equipment and pharmaceuticals” for their operation. That letter was sent several days before Gov. Polis went on CNN to expose that the federal government had bought an order of 500 machines out from under the state of Colorado.

But today, we’re supposed to celebrate the fact that the federal government will “generously” give us 1% of the ventilators we originally asked for, and one-fifth of what they bought out from under the state just last week? It’s preposterous, but that’s apparently what Gardner expects us to do. And given Trump’s well-publicized exercise of personal spite in the distribution of emergency equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, if Gov. Polis complains about what amounts to an outrageous shell game being played with lifesaving medical equipment, we might not even get the 100 ventilators.

Folks, to say this is nothing to celebrate is an understatement.

Colorado just got historically ripped off–and Cory Gardner is telling us to like it.

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13 thoughts on “Three Cheers: Gardner Loses 400 Ventilators To Trump”

  1. Colorado just got historically ripped off–and Cory Gardner is telling us to like it.

    A bit long for a bumper sticker …. but an interesting summary of the entire term of our junior Senator.

  2. I sincerely do not wish the coronavirus on anyone. I strongly dislike Boris Johnson but hope that he recovers quickly. But, I have to wonder if Cory Gardner even considers the possibility that it might be his mom or dad in Yuma that needs a ventilator and cannot get one because the narcissist in chief is handing out critical medical equipment as political favors. 

    I was alive but not politically aware during the Viet Nam War. It is my understanding that one of the reasons we got out was that, National Guard assignments and bone spurs notwithstanding,  almost everyone’s son was subject to being drafted into that losing cause. This pandemic is equally indifferent to political class. Maybe, just maybe, the fact that everyone will suffer (or know someone that suffers) as a result of Trump’s idiocy will be his downfall.  

    1. I sincerely do not wish the coronavirus on anyone. I strongly dislike Boris Johnson but hope that he recovers quickly. 

      You're a better person than I.

    2. Handing out political favors becomes something else when you are withholding life saving equipment, demanding a quid pro quo. It then becomes extortion.

      And… would knowingly and deliberately withholding that equipment from those who ultimately die without it, be…murder?

      1. Ooooo, he went to Jared!

        If Senator Weaselly had an iota of concern about Coloradans, or any decency whatsoever, he’d be calling out Ttump (and Jared) loudly and publicly on this outrageous, but merely just their most recent, quid pro quo scam . . .

         . . . Senator I-guess-we-know-that-ain’t-gonna’-happen Slathering Bootlick.

        “Thankyou sir, may I have another?!!”

    3. Naomi Klein rightly predicted, I think, that it would be impossible to establish a "Free Market Economy" in a functioning democracy. The people of a democracy will not tolerate that much suffering. Moscow Mitch and his Corporate Cabal have managed to ride the T***p Tornado so far, acquiring most of the spoils they sought in the evil compact they made with a soulless ghoul. They are on the verge of solidifying their kleptocracy…but the suffering they were postponing, hiding behind a phony economy (scheduled for profit taking after the election) is here ahead of schedule.

      They might have gotten away with it but for a microbe. He will have to try to delay elections, declare Martial Law, stomp his feet and throw a tantrum…whatever he thinks will work.

    4. But the facts are that everyone WON'T suffer equally.

      The poor and racial minorities will bear the brunt of this, followed closely by front line medical workers most of whom are not wealthy doctors.

      The rich will sit comfortably in their already socially distant homes, speculating on how they can move their money to gain from this. Part of that, is accepting "royal bequests" from Trump.

      Plus c'est change…

  3. Save your outrage.

    If Ttump is promising today to deliver 100 X, who among you is still of such questionable judgement as to believe that he might actually ever deliver 100 X ???

    Is Cory so certain that Ttump isn’t just sending Colorado 100 used tanning beds???  

    10 ???

    2 ???

    Would you believe one tanning bed, and two tubes of 50-SPF sunscreen ???

  5. This is insane. There is a long history of Congressmen "bringing home the bacon" for political gain. But this is not pork-barrel spending! And the last person I want deciding who gets medical supplies (and who doesn't) is Trump. Shouldn't there be someone with expertise in epidemic response or emergency management deciding if ventilators go to Colorado, New York, Louisiana, etc.? The grinning idiot (Gardner) doesn't even acknowledge this. He simply thanks the all-powerful supreme leader for his benevolence. 

  6. I'll bet Jared Polis is full of crap. Even if he's not, the federal government has more power. It looks like Colorado might not need any more ventilators anyway.

    Aren't you tired of playing politics with people's lives, Colorado Pols? Even Jared Polis isn't doing that.

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