Testing is key to stop the coronavirus crisis, but President Donald Trump has not done enough to make enough tests available, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.
"I will say this to President Trump directly: Until you get a handle on testing, this crisis will continue to go on and on," the New York Democrat said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Furthermore, if we don't have enough tests for the future when it comes back and most scientists say it will be in the late summer or fall, it will be much worse."
However, the White House is "derelict" in testing, which has "created many more cases and many more deaths than we could have had if we would have done it right. We must do it right now," said Schumer.
More than 40 Democrats have signed a letter demanding that much more be done with coronavirus testing, said Schumer.
"Two months ago today, the president said everyone who needs a test can get a test," said Schumer. "The fact of the matter is we are way short. We should have 2 million tests a day if we were at the level of South Korea."
The letter also calls for putting a military czar in charge and for invoking the Defense Production Act for testing supplies.
Schumer also called it a "disgrace" that hearings aren't being held in the Senate this week, adding that lawmakers need to hear from Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, along with other experts.
"The bottom line is no one can quite figure it out except it's the president's ego," said Schumer. "To say everyone will get a test does not mean that everyone will get a test. To say it will go away in a month, doesn't mean it will go away in a month and it sure as heck didn't."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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