Governor Cuomo responds to Trump: Coronavirus is “not a blue state issue”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo responded to President Trump’s comments about “bailouts” for states with Democratic governors. During his daily update on the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, Cuomo said “This is not a blue state issue. Every state has coronavirus cases.”

“It’s not just Democratic states that have an economic shortfall,” he said. “Republican states have an economic shortfall.”

In an interview with the New York Post published Monday, Mr. Trump said he thinks “Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I don’t think they’re inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague.”

“It’s not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help — they’re run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic — very little debt,” he said. “You look at Illinois, you look at New York, look at California, you know, those three, there’s tremendous debt there, and many others.”

“I don’t think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time,” Mr. Trump told the publication.

Cuomo took issue with the president’s use of the word “bailout,” saying it does not characterize what states are asking for from the federal government. 

“Because of the coronavirus, we need financial help in restarting the economy, and that’s what we’re asking for from the federal government,” he said. “How do you call that a bailout? Which is such a loaded word. Such a rhetorical, hyperbolic word.”

Cuomo said Democratic states have given the federal government billions more than they have received “for years.”

“This is not any mismanagement by the states,” he said. “If anything, the mismanagement has been on behalf of the federal government, and that’s where the mismanagement has gone back decades.”

230 new deaths reported

The governor also said Tuesday that the number of hospitalizations, intubations and new cases of the coronavirus continues to decline in his state. He said there were an additional 230 deaths reported on Monday, up from 226 on Sunday. 

Cuomo again reiterated that New York must learn the lessons of the pandemic even as it continues to fight it. He said the state must “build back better,” not only replace what was lost during the pandemic, but improve upon it.  

“What the government does today will literally determine how many people live and how many die — and that’s not hyperbolic, and that’s not overly dramatic, that is just a fact,” he said. “That federal government has to be able to pass legislation, to pass legislation it has to be on a bi-partisan basis.”