President Donald Trump likes to boast about how well testing for Covid-19 is going in the United States, saying just this week: « We have the greatest testing in the world. »
President Donald Trump likes to boast about how well testing for Covid-19 is going in the United States, saying just this week: « We have the greatest testing in the world. »
« We have so much testing, » Trump told reporters on the south lawn of the White House. « I don’t think you need that kind of testing or that much testing, but some people disagree with me and some people agree with me. »
On Capitol Hill, many Republicans don’t agree.
A wide range of GOP senators on Thursday had a far different message: Much more needs to be done to ramp up testing before the country can safely reopen.
« We ought to step it up, » Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, a Republican of Alabama, told CNN. « We ought to make the test as quickly as we can, accelerate it and do it. I think it’s key to getting people back to give them confidence and also ascertaining who is carrying the virus. »
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Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican up for reelection this year, said, « We just really want to ramp up testing. We need more tests produced… because I think consumer confidence would certainly be better if we could be testing out there, get the economy up and going. »
Republicans say that testing availability has improved significantly in recent weeks, but they contend it’s still far from where it needs to be to keep the number of cases from dramatically increasing and to allow Americans to return to work. Democrats are already pushing to dramatically expand money for testing in the next relief package, something that could gain bipartisan support.
One of Trump’s personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus
« There are still shortfalls; I mean, we got to address the shortfalls, » GOP Sen.
