New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will not fight with President Trump, even if the president is ready to rumble.
President Trump singled out Cuomo in a series of tweets published Tuesday morning in which he doubled down on his claim that he, not the governors, has the authority to reopen states. Ahead of the tweets, the governor said he found “no value” in watching Trump’s press briefings. During a press conference on Tuesday, Cuomo went on to accuse Trump of looking for a fight and urged him not to politicize the issue.
“The president did his briefing last night, and the president was clearly unhappy,” he explained. “The president did a number of tweets this morning where he is clearly unhappy. He did a tweet about Mutiny on the Bounty, and governors are mutineers. I didn’t follow the exact meaning of the tweet.”
He continued, “The basic essence of the tweet was that he was not happy with governors and that this was a mutiny. The president is clearly spoiling for a fight on this issue. The worst thing we can do in all of this is start with political division and start with partisanship.”
Cuomo said the pandemic should be a “no politics zone.” He credited Trump for parts of his response but knocked him on areas he felt the president failed, including the lack of testing nationwide. While he had his criticisms, he said the two sides should not fight while working to reopen the country.
“Sometimes, it’s better to walk away from a fight than engage in it. Sometimes, it takes more strength, frankly, to walk away from a fight than engage in it. The president will have no fight with me. I will not engage it,” Cuomo said.
He later added, “This is no time for politics, and it is no time to fight. I put my hand out in total partnership and cooperation with the president. If he wants a fight, he is not going to get it from me. Period.”
Cuomo’s remarks during the press conference revealed a change of tune from his criticisms of the president during his appearance on Morning Joe earlier in the day. In the interview, he argued that no governor should watch the president’s task force briefings and questioned how a Republican president could support overruling governors.
“The president stood up and said forget the Constitution of the United States. Forget the concept of federalism,” he said. “To hear a Republican stand up there, by the way, and argue big government and total authority of the federal government is somewhat amusing. You know, if it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny. All of this, it could be a comedy skit. And it’s frightening.”
