Gov. Cuomo hits back at President Trump after tweet critical of his COVID-19 response

“First of all, if he’s sitting at home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” he began. “Let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego, if we can.”

News 12 Staff

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Apr 17, 2020, 3:07 PM

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Updated 1,708 days ago

Gov. Andrew Cuomo had a lengthy response after a reporter read him a tweet from President Donald Trump sent during the governor’s daily COVID-19 briefing.

“First of all, if he’s sitting at home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” he began. “Let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego, if we can.”

The governor had said earlier in the week that he wished not to fight with the president and is only interested in working together. Again, he applauded President Trump for helping increase hospital capacity in New York.

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He says that the projections that he was governing by came from the president’s coronavirus task force, which had up to 2.2 million deaths in the United States.

“The president should read the reports he issues,” says Gov. Cuomo, who reminded President Trump that the CDC works for him.

"Thank you for doing your job...thank you for having the federal government participate in a federal emergency."

Earlier in the news conference, Gov. Cuomo said he is issuing an executive order directing all public and private labs in New York state to coordinate with the Department of Health to ensure prioritizing of diagnostic testing for COVID-19 for public health and restarting the economy.

Gov. Cuomo maintains that large-scale testing is the key to reopening the economy in the state, but it can’t be done without federal help. He said the reagent chemicals needed for those tests are in China, which requires a federal response to acquire them.

MORE: LIVE BLOG - Coronavirus updates from the tri-state area and beyond
TRACKER: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut coronavirus cases and deaths

He also said that federal government is relying on governors to reopen their states – a massive undertaking – and no resources to do it. Gov. Cuomo said three bills have been passed on the COVID-19 crisis, but none of them have provided “unrestricted funding for states.”

Gov. Cuomo said that the net change in hospitalizations in the state is “undeniably on decline” and net intubations of COVID-19 patients are also down. He said there are still about 2,000 new cases each day in the state.

On Thursday, 630 New York residents died due to the virus.

Updates from Gov. Cuomo's news conference

Total hospitalizations are a "tick" down.
Net change in hospitalization is "undeniably on decline."
Net change in intubations are down.
New COVID-19 hospitalizations are still about 2,000 per day.
There were 630 deaths in New York yesterday due to the virus.
"Testing/tracing is our guideposts through this."
"People's actions flattened the curve."
Gov. Cuomo says we are still in "phase 1" of responding to COVID-19. Phase 2 is the "un-pausing" and looking ahead. "How do you plan a reopening of an economy and at the same time, be cognizant of the public health crisis that you're still in?"
The governor says it all comes down to testing on a large-scale in order to get people back to work.
"We don't have a testing system that could do this volume. We don't have a public health testing system."
Gov. Cuomo says the private sector testing capabilities are de minimis (minor), as well.
There are 301 laboratories and hospitals in the state that are licensed to perform virology testing.
Gov. Cuomo says that China has most of the reagent chemicals needed to produce large-scale testing. He says that is why the federal government has to be part of this approach.
Gov. Cuomo says he is issuing an executive order directing all public and private labs in New York state to coordinate with the Department of Health to ensure prioritizing of diagnostic test for public health and restarting the economy. "We cannot do it without federal help."
The federal government has passed three bill on the COVID-19 crisis. But there has been zero unrestricted funding for states.
Gov. Cuomo says financial support is need to stabilize local governments. "Reopening is up to the states...but don't give them the massive undertaking and no resources to do it."
Gov. Cuomo responds to President Trump's tweets critical of him.

Gov. Cuomo: "Thank you for doing your job...thank you for having the federal government participate in a federal emergency."
Gov. Cuomo says he was following the CDC's projections. He reminds President Trump that the CDC works for him.

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