Coronavirus News: NY Governor Cuomo fires back after President Trump tweets criticisms during briefing
NEW YORK -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump have clashed over the federal government's response to the coronavirus outbreak -- and there was a new flare-up Friday after Cuomo implied the federal government was shirking its responsibility to coordinate mass testing with states.
"The federal government cannot wipe its hands of this and say 'Oh, the states are responsible for testing.' We cannot do it. We cannot do it without federal help," he said.
As Cuomo held his daily briefing, Trump was watching and tweeting, noting that the Democratic governor should spend less time "complaining."
Cuomo, in the middle of the presser and seemingly unaware of the criticism, was asked by a reporter to respond to those tweets after reading them to him.
"First of all, if he's sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?" Cuomo said. "Second ... let's keep emotion and politics out of this and personal ego if we can."
Cuomo said Trump was "disrespectful" in dismissing the 800 people who were patients at the Javits Center and pointed out the federal government agreed with the need for hospital beds -- and New York's projection for ventilators was based on Trump's and the CDC's projections.
As far as not saying "thank you" for the president's help, Cuomo said he had thanked the president on television several times, but said again that the federal government had been "very helpful" and that he had "said thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," he added, "What am I supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers?"
During his lengthy response, Cuomo suggested that instead of criticizing him, the president should focus on how social distancing measures prevented a much worse situation.
Trump also attacked former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden over their handling of H1N1.
Then he followed up with another tweet calling Governor Cuomo's request for 40,000 ventilators "ridiculous."
