House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced on Saturday that they would not accept the Trump administration’s offer to send members of Congress quick Abbott tests for COVID-19.
“Congress is grateful for the Administration’s generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time,” Pelosi and McConnell said in a joint statement. “Our country’s testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly.”
The two congressional leaders said lawmakers on the Hill would continue to use current testing procedures “until these speedier technologies become more widely available.”
Earlier on Saturday, President Donald Trump bragged about “tremendous” opportunities for Congress to take tests for the virus.
“There is tremendous CoronaVirus testing capacity in Washington for the Senators returning to Capital [sic] Hill on Monday. Likewise the House, which should return but isn’t because of Crazy Nancy P,” he tweeted. “The 5 minute Abbott Test will be used.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar had announced the previous day that the administration would send Abbott tests to the Senate.
“Now this special Abbot test requires we slice open the neck to the cartoid artery…”
Trump.Just.Doesn’t.Get.It!!!
He doesn’t get the optics which is what matters to him the most in these times.
His staff can’t get him to give it the old college try in pretending.
And why should we care if Trump keeps shooting himself in the dick?
What is going on with McConnell? All the sudden he is agreeing with Pelosi? Has he seen his party slipping into the abyss and decided to try to hang on? Something is fishy here.
I think it’s obvious. They’re declining the Abbott test because it has a relatively high 15% false negative rate. They want the more accurate tests even if they take longer. Of course this will piss off the Orange Menace because he’s been touting the Abbott test as a yet another WH success story.
Yep, tremendous opportunities for Congress to be tested, but the millions of others in the country, why would he be concerned about us. Somehow he thinks if tests are available to Congress we’ll all applaud and think all is right within the country. I think he’s short more than one screw.