Gov. Phil Murphy asked President Trump for tens of billions of dollars in assistance on Thursday before announcing, during an afternoon news conference, that New Jersey’s coronavirus death toll hit a single-day high. Trump said the issue of bringing more funding to New Jersey to aid in its recovery is a “tough question.”
Murphy reported that New Jersey had 460 more deaths on Thursday, raising the overall total to 7,228. New Jersey also had more than 2,633 new cases – a number that’s been on a daily decline – as the overall number rose to 118,652.
Earlier, Murphy told Trump that the state will likely need $20 billion to $30 billion to shore up the state as it continues to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, record unemployment and sharply declining revenues.
“We don’t see this as a bailout. We see this as a partnership,” Murphy said.
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Murphy wants to make sure that tens of thousands of people – including police, firefighters, teachers, EMS and other public employees – can get paid in the middle of the crisis and continue to assist people “in their hour of need.”
Trump’s response was: “That’s a tough question because you’re talking about the states and whether you call it a bailout or a lot of money – a lot of it’s for years, longer than you (Murphy) were there.”
Trump then went on to praise Murphy, saying: “You can’t have a better representative than this man. Plus, he’s an old Goldman Sachs guy.”
“He went through a big operation just before this happened and that’s a helluva thing,” Trump said, referring to Murphy’s cancer operation.
Murphy said the visit with Trump yielded good results, prompting the Trump administration to provide:
- 550,000 new test kits
- 750,000 new swabs for testing
- 358 nursing homes will be receiving a direct shipment of 220,000 masks, 19,000 goggles, 200,000 gowns and 1 million gloves.
“This proves that it is possible to put people over politics,” Murphy said. “It’s no secret that the president and I disagree on some things but that’s not going to stop me from making sure that New Jersey has all the resources it needs.”
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