I get that as chief executive, the president is ultimately responsible for everything, but is this literally where we're dumping the blame?
The President failed to make sure the task force member who recommended the vendor had done his diligence and the state government was just 100% blindly trusting of the very same White House they claim to hate at every step of the way, therefore it's Trump's fault?
What ever happened to trust but verify?
I just don't understand why type of micro-manager would be needed for this to not be his fault then. It wouldn't be a human at that point, you'd need some sort of AI that manages the smallest of minutia of every aspect of government.
Please don't fall prey to the emo journalism of the day. And don't rachet it up even farther. For the most part, these are professionals doing their jobs. There's been a lot more failure than typical, on both sides, in the face of an historical pandemic. But let's not demonize either side here, or assume that others do.
For the record, Trump does run the executive branch, and if one of its people pushed this through, it reflects horribly on his leadership and whoever eventually gets thrown under the bus.
But, this article doesn't bring much to the table in terms of sources. Doesn't make sense to point fingers until someone involved in the purchase does, without anonymity.
It's worth reading the article. The subtitle adds a bit of necessary context:
> The Silicon Valley engineer, who had no background in medical supplies but was recommended by the White House, never delivered the ventilators.
The article has a direct quote:
> “The guy was recommended to us by the White House coronavirus task force because they were doing business with him as well,” said the New York state official.
I don't think the state government expected that the White House would recommend a scammer.
Holding people responsible for their decisions isn't blaming the victim. This is their job. They failed at it. NY keeps making bad decisions and then blaming the federal government -- they take credit but push off blame/responsibility. I'm not happy with how my government is handling this.