New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that President Trump should spend more time focusing on the coronavirus pandemic than criticizing him.
“First of all, he’s sitting [at] home watching TV. Maybe he should get up and go to work,” Cuomo said about Trump. “Second … let’s keep emotion and politics out of this — and personal ego if we can.”
During Cuomo’s daily press briefing Friday, Trump tweeted that the governor “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining’” about the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In response to Trump’s tweets, Cuomo said the states and the federal government should be working to overcome the pandemic rather than fighting.
“We still have a lot to do,” Cuomo said.
The burden of responding to the coronavirus outbreak, Cuomo said, lies with the federal government as well as states. After White House projections showed that New York would be the state hit hardest by the coronavirus, Cuomo and Trump agreed to work together to secure overflow hospital space at the Javits Center in Manhattan and on the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
New York has experienced a decline in new hospitalizations and intubations in the past week, which Cuomo said is “a good sign.” The number of new hospitalizations is still high, though, with about 2,000 new patients going to hospitals daily. Trump said as much Friday, tweeting, “Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!”
The coronavirus disease killed another 630 people in New York on Thursday, bringing the state’s death toll to over 12,800.
