Cory Booker: Trump has created 'perverse' 'Hunger Games' where governors compete for resources

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Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., suggested on Friday that President Trump pitted governors against each other in a way that resembled the dystopian "Hunger Games" series.

"We've got to do this right," Booker said on "The View," "and what really frustrates me is that I hear people using militaristic terms -- this is a war, I've heard people say that. Well, if that's the case, what we should be doing is not having this kind of perverse 'Hunger Games' where you have literally governors competing against each other for the critical resources they need."

"We didn't do that in World War II. We had a national mobilization to meet the threat to our nation," he added. "This is a president who is trying to say, this is still like the Articles of Confederation -- all the states are on their own. No. We're the United States of America, and this president should be stepping up, using the Defense Production Act and more to make sure that we are producing the materials we need to get out of this."

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In the dystopian "Hunger Games" movies, an elite ruling class finds entertainment in watching as randomly selected competitors fight to the death in an artificial arena.

Trump has received criticism for putting the onus on states to step up and provide needed materials for their people during the coronavirus pandemic.

In responding to the crisis, Trump utilized the Defense Production Act, allowing him to direct private companies to help meet national needs. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany suggested last week that the president's response created the "greatest mobilization of American industry since World War II."

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"The fact that, in the average year, the healthcare industry uses 25 million N95 masks, and we have delivered in this short time 75 million N95 masks — more than three times what the healthcare sector uses in a year — that’s extraordinary," she said.

White House adviser Jared Kushner similarly described the government's response as a "success story."