Our president was quick to respond to controlling Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors who are merely exercising their first amendment rights, but was not so quick to respond to controlling the pandemic that has so far killed more than150,000 Americans.

When it came to the use of Federal resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump said, “It’s up to the governors and the states.” Now, in contrast, in response to the BLM protests, it’s somehow not up to the governors and the states, but up to Donald Trump. Trump has sent camouflaged federal agents into states often without IDs, using unmarked cars, deployed to deal with “violent protestors & anarchists”, disrupting peaceful protesting and causing chaos where there was none. All the while, many in health care and other front line workers contracted the virus and died because they did not have proper personnel protective equipment (PPE).

The lack of PPE could’ve easily been solved by a mere stroke of a pen by Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act and have FEMA take control of the supply chain instead of the states competing with each other (and FEMA) for the desperately needed PPE and ventilators, but he would not do it. Now, the head of FEMA testified to Congress that we are still months away from producing enough PPE to meet demand. The difference between Trump’s response to the pandemic and the BLM protests is classic Donald Trump, and Granite Staters deserve better.

Newsletter