Vice President Mike Pence pinned some of the coronavirus deaths that occurred in the state of New York on Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“Our hearts grieve for the fact that 1 in 5 of all the American lives that have been lost in the coronavirus pandemic were lost in the state of New York, and some of that was because of poor decisions by the state and by Gov. Cuomo,” Pence said Monday on Fox News. “I liked it better when he said that President Trump’s leadership in the pandemic was, in his words, was ‘phenomenal.’ He said that repeatedly.”
Critics have attacked Cuomo for a March 25 order that required some recovering coronavirus patients to be placed into nursing homes during the first few weeks of the pandemic.
After initially praising Trump for assisting New York during the pandemic’s initial surge, Cuomo, a Democrat, has been critical of Trump’s handling of the crisis in recent weeks.
“He makes up facts. He makes up science,” Cuomo said early last month, adding Trump was “enabling the virus” by making false or misleading claims about the pandemic.
Trump has praised his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the federal government has the situation under control and insisting that public places such as businesses and schools should reopen.
But public health experts have warned such a rush to reopen the American economy will lead to a spike in cases and deaths.
“The primary consideration should always be the safety, the health of the welfare of the children, as well as the teachers and the secondary effects for spreading (to) the parents and other family members,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said of a push to reopen schools.
Cuomo said he will only support reopening schools in his state when he feels it is completely safe to do so.
“We’re not going to say that children should go back to school until we know it’s safe, right?” Cuomo said. “We have some time. This is a very fluid situation. We’ll get the data. We will make a decision. In the meantime, I’m telling all school districts to come up with a reopening plan. But we don’t yet know if we are going to reopen.”
Pence said part of the reason New York was able to contain the spread of the virus in recent weeks is due to the help that the state received from the federal government.
“There will be plenty of time to debate various responses,” Pence said. “Our focus is on dealing with this pandemic, marshaling the full resources of the government. … The American people know the facts here.”
