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Trump launched into a conspiracy theory and appeared to accuse hospitals of lying about the number of masks that they need during the coronavirus briefing.

Trump said:



I bring that up because when we discussed back in the room — we were in a conference room, very nice one, actually, it is called the cabinet room. That statement was made, that they have been delivering, for years, 10 to 20,000 masks. Okay. It is a New York hospital. It is packed all the time. How do you go from 10,000 to 20,000 to 300,000? 10,000 to 20,000 maskings to 300,000. This is different. Something is going on. You ought to lock into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? Out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?

And we have that in a lot of different places. Somebody should look into that. Because I don’t see from a practical standpoint how it is possible to go from that to and we have that happening in numerous places. Not to that extent. That was the highest number I have heard. That’s the highest number you have seen, I would imagine. But this man makes them and delivers them to a lot of hospitals. He knows the system better than I think you were surprised the see that number. I hope I didn’t get any of your clients in trouble. But they could be in trouble. They have the look at that in New York.

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Video:

Trump launches in a conspiracy and claims that hospitals are lying about the number of masks that they need and tells reporters to investigate it. pic.twitter.com/kRQYUINuRi — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 29, 2020

The answer to why hospitals need more masks isn’t complicated. Hospitals need exponentially more masks than they used to order because they are being overwhelmed with sick people who have a highly contagious virus.

Trump is attempting to blame the hospitals for wanting too many masks to cover up for his failure to provide them.

While doctors, nurses, and first responders are getting the coronavirus at an alarming rate, Trump claimed that they don’t need as many masks as they are asking for.

It is this sort of incompetence and pettiness that is getting people needlessly infected and killed.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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