This morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York patiently explained why the president  should have already invoked the Defense Production Act, compelling firms to begin producing ventilators and other medical equipment, and should immediately send thousands of ventilators to New York from the federal stockpile. Cuomo estimated that New York will need 30,000 ventilators to cope with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the country. So far they’ve been able to acquire 7,000.

The president, purportedly an adult human being, responded this morning:

Usually, we’ll have 50 governors on the conference call at the same time. I think we’re doing very well. But, you know, it’s a two-way street. They have to treat us well also. They can’t say, Oh gee we should get this, we should get that. Like in New York, we’re building four hospitals… And then, I hear, you know, there’s a problem with ventilators. We sent them ventilators. And they could have had 15 or 16,000. All they had to do was order them two years ago. But they decided not to do it. They can’t blame us for that.