JB Pritzker Reveals The Talk Show Stunt Trump Wanted In Exchange For COVID Equipment
HuffPost
The Illinois governor said Wednesday that the president agreed to send his state lifesaving equipment under one condition.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) says President Donald Trump “proved who he really is” in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — as Trump allegedly agreed to send the state lifesaving equipment only if Pritzker showed him fealty on national television.
Pritzker recalled Wednesday at an event for the Center for American Progress that U.S. companies at the time were price-gouging governments, hospitals, police and fire departments as people were dying — and said the president didn’t seem to mind.
“He could have fought for us,” Pritzker said onstage. “He really could have. Instead, he made self-serving deals. He would send life-saving equipment if only we would agree to praise him on the Sunday talk shows. That is literally a deal that he put in front of me.”
“I was desperate,” he continued. “My hospitals were filling up. And time was of the essence, so I agreed that I would do that if he sent me what we needed. Because my job at the time was to do virtually anything to get the White House to help us save lives.”
One year after the pandemic began ravaging America in March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. topped 550,000. It was the third leading cause of death in the country, displacing suicide from the top 10.
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