General Motors was more focused on "money than patriotism" when it came to negotiating a deal to produce ventilators, which is why the government ordered the company to start making them, White House official Peter Navarro told Newsmax TV.
Speaking with Newsmax's Emerald Robinson for an interview that aired on "Greg Kelly Reports," Navarro — he's director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy — said President Donald Trump had no choice but to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the carmaker to start building much-needed ventilators as the country deals with the coronavirus pandemic.
"Ventilators are a key bottleneck to save American lives. And we've been actively working with at least 10 different companies on a very cooperative basis to rapidly ramp up production," Navarro said. "Unfortunately, GM was an outlier in dealing with us. It was more about money than patriotism.
"Where a lot of the other companies were really stepping up to the plate, [GM] was dragging their heels on the contracts. We've got an urgent need for these things, so the president said, OK, this is the perfect case where we have to push things along. So he signed that order today and we expect GM and a company called Ventec to move forthwith to production."
Navarro added that when the COVID-19 crisis ends and the federal government comes up for air, a full debrief needs to be conducted to figure out why China, where the outbreak first began last year, kept it a secret for weeks.
"I think there needs to be an accounting of where that virus came from and an explanation as to why [China] didn't let our CDC people in there, why they held it for six weeks," he said. "I tell you, if we had six more weeks to prepare for what's going on in New York, New Orleans, Detroit, and Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and California, we'd be in a better position now."
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