Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he's 'given up' on any promises from the federal government for supplies needed to battle COVID-19

• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he's "given up" on any federal promises fo critical supplies to battle the novel coronavirus in an interview on CNN.
• Pritzker said the Trump administration had made several promises to deliver more supplies for testing, PPE, and more.
• But when the federal government didn't deliver, Pritzker claimed that he and other state governors were left to figure out how to get what they need on their own.
• The news comes in the midst of a heated face-off between the Trump administration and several state governors over how to handle distributing supplies to COVID-19 and when and how to re-open states to stimulate the stalled US economy.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker dealt a cutting blow to President Donald Trump, saying in an interview with CNN he has "given up" on federal promises to deliver critical supplies to battle the coronavirus.

Pritzker appeared on "OutFront" with CNN's Erin Burnett on April 14 to talk about the escalating feud between state governors and Donald Trump over the US coronavirus efforts, particularly the extent of the federal government's role in helping states battle the novel virus.

An ongoing source of tension between the feuding American leaders is testing for the coronavirus. Testing per capita in the US still lags behind, with doctors and hospitals continuing to report shortages. That means experts don't have an accurate picture of the country's epidemic.

Burnett asked Pritzker about Trump's recent claims at a White House news briefing that "governors are supposed to do testing" and that it was not "up to the federal government."

Pritzker appeared flustered by the president's comment, claiming that Trump's stance on the subject was vas very different just last month.

Trump's administration previously promised to send out millions of coronavirus tests across the country to assess the spread of infection — but Pritzker claimed the federal government never delivered.

"I asked over and over again for testing from the federal government," Pritzker said on CNN. "They kept saying that they were going to deliver millions of tests across the country — they haven't done that. We've done that ourselves."

With little aid from the US government, Pritzer claimed that his state was forced to coordinate its own efforts to produce supplies needed for testing, including viral transport media (VTM), the test swabs used to collect virus specimens from the back of the throat. Desperate to get testing kits, hospitals began making their own coronavirus test swabs instead of waiting for supplies from the federal government, the Hill reported.

Pritzker even noted that he and other governors entered bidding wars for critical PPE supplies from overseas and even had to compete with the Trump administration to secure the medical gear for hospital workers in his state.

"We've gotten very little help from the government. It's fine, I've given up on any promises that have been made," Pritzker said. "I hope supplies will be delivered from the federal government, but I don't expect it anymore."

Pritzker's comments in the CNN interview come amid an ongoing volley between the two after Pritzker began publicly lambasting Trump for the dwindling medical supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients and protect medical workers treating the disease in the federal stockpile.

"There's no way that we can stockpile in anticipation of a pandemic that no one anticipated, and yet the federal government is responsible for doing precisely that," Pritzker said earlier this month.

At one press conference, Trump even shot back at the Illinois governor claiming that Pritzker was "always complaining," and listing projects that the federal government was helping complete in Illinois.

"There is a governor, I hear him complaining all the time, Pritzker. He is always complaining," Trump said. "Like in Illinois, the governor couldn't do his job, so we had to help him."

Desperate to get critical medical supplies before reaching dire shortages or to prepare for a peak of coronavirus outbreaks in their states, US governors reported resorting to calling Trump directly, complaining on television, or tweeting at the president and his coronavirus task force when going through the official FEMA channels were too slow or ineffective.