Republican Gov. Hogan reacts on Trump lambasting him, says he doesn’t know what made the President upset

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The state of Maryland’s governor was called out by the President, saying that he had no knowledge about federal laboratories.
• The governor says he was acting as per Trump’s advice that states should lead its own testing kits acquisition.
• Trump was also criticized because he seemingly supports the demonstrations against stat-at-home restrictions.

Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan said on Tuesday that he was bewildered with President Donald Trump calling him out a day before.  Hogan said he was just acting based on the President’s advice that coronavirus testing should fell upon the hands of every state.

In an interview with Sandra Smith hosted Fox News show, “America’s Newsroom, ” the governor said he was not sure why Trump reacted that way, noting the President instructed the governors to get their testing kits.

The Maryland governor also noted that they were doing good on getting the tests, and he was adhering to the call, representing all governors.

Hogan is currently the chairman of the National Governors Association, and with the help of his Korean immigrant wife, he was able to arrange 500,000 additional test kits from Korea for the Maryland state.

On Monday, Trump lambasted the governor.

Hogan recently refuted the President’s claim that testing kits in the country are enough, and in an interview with the New York Times, the governor commented that getting the kits from other countries will not have been that hard.

During a recent presser, Trump afterward called out Hogan, saying the governor does not have an idea about the federal laboratories.

Trump was citing Vice President Mike Pence’s conference call with the governors early Monday to deal with testing concerns.

For weeks now, Hogan has been pressing for having more testing kits. After the briefing with the VP, he acknowledged Trump’s help in allowing Maryland to utilize federal labs in processing to test kits he got from South Korea.

The governor also noted on Tuesday that Maryland has been trying to have access to federal labs for more than four weeks already; thus, Pence’s commitment from the President came as a piece of good news.

While Hogan said the call with the VP was great, he thought Trump was just muddled during the press briefing, and he was not there during the teleconference.

On Tuesday, the GOP governor released a formal acceptance letter to make use of federal labs officially. He mentioned in the letter that other politicians like Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) had made a request over a month ago for the federal’s help in testing. He also seeks guidance on how they could proceed in using the facilities.

During an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, Hogan also criticized Trump for seemingly encouraging the protests against stay-at-home measures. He even called the President’s provisional ban on immigration as just a political diversion.

Source: AOL