Trump Advisor Calls for Cooperation Between Parties

DAVID URBAN, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2020 ELECTION: Yes. Well, listen. So, Christiane, I don’t think politics has any place in the current forum and I don’t think it’s — it should be — people on the Trump side should be denigrating Dr. Fauci. I don’t think people Speaker Pelosi should be denigrating the president. I think what people in America want to see is kind of the cooperation and collaboration you’ve seen between Governor Cuomo and President Trump, and Governor Newsom and President Trump. I mean, there are people who are not even close on the ideological spectrum who are working together and cooperating and talking despite their very, very strong differences. I think that should be the model for how all Americans are moving forward during this incredibly trying time in our nation’s history.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I want to ask you because, again, you are former military, a couple of things. You have seen this pretty massive airlift coming in from China now. I mean, we’re used to seeing the U.S. do massive airlifts of aid to many, many other parts of the world. But the Chinese have — well, there’s been a civilian plane chartered with a huge amount of required equipment from China and there may be many more. What do you make of that?

URBAN: Yes, Christiane, a couple things. You had asked General McChrystal, who I have a great deal of admiration for, about the military. The military is really surging forward here in lots of different ways. You correctly point out the Army Corps. It’s gone up to the Javits Center in New York and building out hospitals and converting hotel rooms to bed space. They are sending to hospital ships to both the — one to the East Coast, one to the West Coast. The military is surging greatly. Of interest, though, you should note that the primary response of the military and these types of situations is each state’s National Guard. And in the state of New York, for example, it’s the 42nd Infantry Division. They have roughly 20,000 individuals who serve in that unit. And I believe, to date, there have only been about 3,000 of those folks called into action. So, I think before any — there’s a federal response by the U.S. military, each of these Guard units would be called up and mobilized. To the air bridge from China, unfortunately, this is the president and lots of others here in the United States are pointing to. Nothing’s made in America anymore. So, PPE, the protective equipment, parts for respirators, lots of the things that we need to move forward throughout this crisis are made overseas. And so it’s very difficult to get them here. We’d love to see more respirators made here, but it’s hard to turn a car factory into a respirator factory very quickly. These are complex medical pieces of equipment. And it’s very difficult to do. And you talked about — with General McChrystal about the Defense Production Act. I think lots of folks have been kind of bellying up to the bar, so to speak, and offering to make things. The challenge is getting some of those critical parts which come in from certain factories in China, unfortunately.