President Trump’s two-page letter to Senate Minority Leader and presidential irritant Charles E. Schumer on Thursday was one for the ages.
Responding to Mr. Schumer’s criticism of his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, Mr. Trump called the New York Democrat a spotlight-seeking show horse who would lose a possible primary against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a senator you are for the state of New York until I became president,” the president wrote.
Mr. Schumer appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday morning and demanded more action from the White House on delivering medical supplies to states. He also wrote a letter to the president complaining about a “federal leadership void.”
“I am calling on the administration to put in charge of both production and distribution of materials a military man as czar under the [Defense Production Act],” Mr. Schumer. “We need someone unpolitical to produce the materials more quickly … and to distribute them to the places that are most needed — to not have my governor have to call up California and compete with other states.”
Mr. Trump’s public reply was blunt.
“Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way,” Mr. Trump wrote.
The president noted that Vice President Mike Pence is overseeing the coronavirus task force and referred to Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, who is leading FEMA’s supply chain task force. Mr. Trump also accused Mr. Schumer of being “missing in action, except when it comes to the press,” and devoting his time to impeaching the president.
“If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers) and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the ’invisible enemy,’” Mr. Trump wrote. “No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary. If they did, they would likely win.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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