Cuomo, Trump snipe at each other during governor’s press conference after president tells him to stop ‘complaining’
Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers his daily press briefing on COVID-19, Coronavirus in the Red Room of the Capitol. April 16, 2020.(Darren McGee- Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)
Gov. Cuomo unleashed a 20-minute tirade on President Trump on Friday after the commander-in-chief trolled him with a tweet telling him to “spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’”
The governor, who has repeatedly said he is refraining from engaging in politics with the president during the coronavirus pandemic, admonished Trump for watching his daily televised press briefing from Albany and said “maybe he should get up and go to work, right?"
The spat unfolded live as Trump accused his fellow Queens native of not being appreciative of federal assistance in ramping up hospital capacity and bringing in medical equipment as New York quickly became the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis.
“What am I supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers?" Cuomo responded sarcastically. “By the way, that’s just doing your job. This was your role as president.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the briefing room at the White House April 16, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The bickering came as another 630 New Yorkers died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, a grim statistic as the number of hospitalizations and ICU admissions continues to decline.
“The number of deaths, unfortunately, refuses to come down dramatically,” Cuomo said. “That is still breathtaking in its pain and grief and tragedy.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gives his a press briefing about the coronavirus crisis on April 17, in Albany, New York. (Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
The number of confirmed infections in the state climbed to 229,642.
New York City saw 722 people die from the virus over 24 hours, bringing the death toll to a staggering 12,199 Friday afternoon, according to the city health department.
Cuomo and Trump have delicately danced around each other for days as states and the federal government look at reopening the stalled economy.
The pair clashed earlier this week over who is responsible for reopening the economy, with the president at first claiming he had “absolute authority” before released vague guidelines and admitting governors are at the helm.
Cuomo continued to criticize and question the president’s comprehension of the Constitution as he called for federal funds to increase testing as states move closer to lifting strict stay-at-home orders and reopen their economies.
....testing that you should be doing. We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks. Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!
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“Don’t give them this massive undertaking that has never been done before and then not give them any resources to do it,” Cuomo said. “Don’t ask the states to do this. ... It’s up to the governors, up to the governors, up to the governors. OK. Is there any funding so I can do these things that you want us to do? No. That is passing the buck without passing the bucks.”
Pushing back on claims that he over-hyped the danger posed by the pandemic, Cuomo had an aide display an already prepared slide showing federal models predicting dramatically higher death tolls and hospitalization rates.
He derided White House experts like Peter Navarro, who wrote a memo warning of up to two million deaths, and the head of the federal Centers for Disease Control for getting the numbers wrong as he excoriated the president over his reality show past.
“If you want to point fingers — we built more beds than we needed — our only mistake was believing your numbers, believing your projections,” Cuomo said, suggesting Trump use his “Apprentice” catchphrase “You’re fired” to deal with Navarro and White House coronavirus task force officials.
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