Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Calls into NY1 News

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called into NY1 News with Kristen Shaughnessy.

AUDIO is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:

Kristen Shaughnessy: Governor Cuomo joining us now by phone to talk about the status of the city right now. Governor Cuomo thanks for joining us.

Governor Cuomo: Pleasure, Kristen.

Kristen Shaughnessy: Let's talk about these 20 zip codes that you have highlighted. They're hot spots here saying these are clusters, they could lead to community spread very quickly so that's why you really want to concentrate on them. We're talking about Brooklyn and Queens in particular.

Governor Cuomo: Yeah, we do more testing in New York State than any state in United States. The reason we do that is it gets us an early warning system. We literally can sign the virus spreading by zip code and what we see now is we have some zip codes, top 20 zip codes, out of 1,740 zip codes in the state, so 20 zip codes a small amount but Rockland county, Orange county, Brooklyn, little pocket in Nassau and Queens. And in these zip codes we're seeing very high infection rates. We have about a one percent infection rate statewide and we can have 5 percent, 10 percent, even 18 percent in some of these zip codes. If you don't stop a cluster the cluster becomes community spread so this is the early warning system but we have to jump on those clusters and we need real compliance and enforcement in those clusters.

Kristen Shaughnessy: Yeah, we saw what happened in Westchester early on in this pandemic when that one case was diagnosed. It's also coming at a time when indoor dining will start tomorrow at 25 percent. You've got schools reopening here in the city and you also have shelters that are closed but you're saying though should reopen if schools are reopening.

Governor Cuomo: Well, we have the fall coming. You have states spiking all across the nation and some of those people come here. We have countries spiking all over the globe and some of those people come here and we have bars and we have schools, right, so it's a time when we have to be very careful. People are expecting an increase in the fall. They've been talking about that a long time. New York State has always set the low bar. Our goal is the lowest infection rate in the nation. We have a very high bar and we want to meet it and we know that we have to be extra diligent and I want to be. The homeless, the weather is getting colder, we have homeless people on the street. They're endangering their own health. They're endangering the public health. You know, you have somebody with COVID who is on a street corner and people walking by them and as you know, Kristen, I've worked on this issue all my life. We learned this lesson in the subways. There was no reason for the homeless to live in the subways. We didn't help them. We fixed that during COVID and we should have homeless people in safe shelters to get services they need. We know how to operate a safe shelter. We can operate schools and bars and restaurants and gyms. Just open the shelters and keep them safe and get homeless people off the streets.

Kristen Shaughnessy: You are going to meet with community leaders virtually as well as religious leaders virtually either this afternoon or tomorrow and we saw this weekend there was a wedding with almost 200 people that was held in Queens and not social distancing and not masks. We're dealing with mask fatigue and social distancing fatigue but how do you get people to start paying attention again?

Governor Cuomo: Kristen, we don't have the luxury of fatigue. The virus isn't in fatigue. The virus is strong and that's a problem. We have to do compliance. I'm meeting with members of the Orthodox Jewish community. If you look at Rockland and Orange and Brooklyn and Nassau you'll see the zip codes have a high predominance of the Orthodox Jewish community and there have been pictures that have been circulating about lack of compliance at religious ceremonies. Religious ceremonies are only by law 50 percent of capacity but I'm going to say to the leaders in Orange and Rockland and Brooklyn the law is there to protect you and the local officials are supposed to be enforcing it and we need the help of the community. And look, we do this because we love the Orthodox Jewish community and if you have a high infection rate people are going to get sick and people are going to die and it's out of love and that's why we do the compliance work. It's out of love. But I need the local governments to help. I need New York City to help. I need the New York City Police Department to wear masks. They're supposed to be enforcing the law. I think it's a very bad sign when the NYPD don't wear masks.

Kristen Shaughnessy: When problems appear bigger than people can individually handle, we're talking about the pandemic, we're talking about the economic problems related to the pandemic, they look to leaders. Today during your briefing and last week during your briefings you talked about Mayor de Blasio, not necessarily by name, and also President Trump and you're saying they're not meeting the moment.

Governor Cuomo: Yeah, look. Let's say this - I know this is a hyperpolitical season and it's everybody personally on edge. I stick to the facts and I stick to the truth. Let's talk about the facts and the truth. Personally I don't have, my feelings vis-à-vis President Trump are irrelevant. Who cares how I feel about President Trump? His soul will be judged later on when he gets to the pearly gates. You ask any New Yorker, has President Trump helped New York, and they'll say no. He stopped the Second Avenue Subway, he didn't rebuild the Hudson River bridges, he raised our taxes with SALT, he hasn't helped New York and I represent New Yorkers and I'm going to call it the way it is. The issues in New York City, you ask any New Yorker, is crime a problem? Shootings with victims is up 100 percent, 86 percent are Black and Brown, homelessness is a problem, garbage collection is a problem. It has nothing to do personally with anyone. You have to be able to speak facts and truth if we're going to make progress. You deny a problem, you never solve it and I've a Queens boy so let's put it in Queens: you call a plumber to come fix your kitchen sink, you come home from work, you're stepping in a puddle, you call the plumber, you say to the plumber what happened, the plumber says, oh, you're being political, you're being personal, you say no, I'm standing in a puddle. We're standing a puddle. It's facts. We have to get the job done.

Kristen Shaughnessy: We just have about a minute left but we have the debate obviously coming up between President Trump and Joe Biden tonight and obviously one of the focus areas will be the New York Times article on the President and his federal taxes. What can you tell me about the State investigation into State taxes that he has paid and where does that stand?

Governor Cuomo: I can't tell you anything about the State investigation because it's an investigation. I'm the former Attorney General and the integrity of those investigations is key but look, we know Trump from New York. He's a marketing man. That's what he does. He does marketing with his big name on planes and buildings. He's a marketer. He marketed himself as a business success. He wasn't. He was a business failure. But he marketed himself that way. He markets himself as a successful president. He's not. We lose more people to COVID every day than almost any nation on the globe. His performance has been terrible. It's all marketing and we see through that in New York. We have better vision to detect phoniness.

Kristen Shaughnessy: Governor Cuomo, we want to thank you for joining us. Good luck getting these clusters under control and we will check back after you talk with the community leaders. We appreciate it.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you very much. Thanks, Kristen.