Trump to reporter asking about ventilators: Don't be a cutie pie 01:06
(CNN)President Donald Trump would not explicitly guarantee on Friday that anybody in the US who needs a ventilator to combat coronavirus would have access to one.
Asked during a White House press briefing whether anyone who needed a ventilator in the US would be able to get one, Trump said, "I think we're in great shape. … I hope that we're going to have leftovers so that we can help other people, other countries."
The President also said the country is "manufacturing a lot of them now. We are accumulating a lot."
But when he was pressed again on whether he could assure that every American would have access to a ventilator if they needed one, Trump responded to the reporter by saying, "Look, don't be a cutie pie, OK? … Nobody's ever done what we've done. Nobody's done anything like we've been able to do. And everything that I took over was a mess."
The President then called the reporter who asked the question a "wise guy."
“Wise guys” is a term used by the American Mafia, the police and the media who report on them to describe individual members of the Mafia and their associates. … Since wise guys are members of the Mafia, they are only threats when they become informants or when they seek to remove their leadership from their positions.