After trading barbs Tuesday with President Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo struck a conciliatory tone, scaling back his criticism of the White House decision not to enforce the production of essential medical supplies and offering praise for Trump.
The Democrat said he had spoken “several times” with the president and senior adviser Jared Kushner since Tuesday, calling Kushner, “extraordinarily helpful.”
New York has reached 30,811 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus, Cuomo said, adding 5,146 new cases since Tuesday, and is in need of medical supplies to stem the spreading outbreak.
“The president and his team are using the DPA well,” Cuomo said in a briefing Wednesday, citing the Defense Production Act, a law that the White House could use to force companies to produce much-needed supplies.
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Cuomo did not call for the White House to invoke the DPA, as he had urged on Tuesday when he called that the 400 ventilators the federal government sent New York a “pat on the back.”
Instead, Cuomo said the act could be used as “leverage” with companies, as White House trade and manufacturing policy adviser Peter Navarro has suggested.
The rift between the president and the governor escalated Tuesday, spilling into public across several interviews and briefings.
In a Fox News town hall, when Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, explained why the outbreak was worse in New York than in other states, Trump interjected and asked her, “Do you blame the governor for that?”
In a later interview, Trump pulled out a piece of paper and said Cuomo had the opportunity to buy 16,000 ventilators five years ago but turned it down. “I’m not blaming him or anything else,” Trump added, conceding that he would help but that Cuomo should be buying his own ventilators instead of relying on the federal government.
As New York scrambles to contain the outbreak, the White House called on anyone leaving New York to immediately self-quarantine for 14 days.
