Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on CNN's Erin Burnett Outfront

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront with Erin Burnett.

AUDIO is available here.

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

Erin Burnett: Governor Cuomo joins me now on the phone. Governor, you were listening to Trump in his briefing a few moments ago and he said some of the governors haven't been appreciative. He wants governors to be appreciative. He said the multiple times. He said you are among those who have been appreciative. Is that the case what is your response to the President?

Governor Cuomo: I said I've been working closely with the President. This is no time for politics. This is a time for exquisite coordination between the federal government and the state governments because we need each other. The federal government is basically using the state governments as the instrumentality so I said to the President, I put my hand out in partnership. We've had political differences in the past. Forget about that. Let's work together and help me deliver for my people. My state as you said has the highest number of cases in the country. The President has been very cooperative. I'll tell you something else, Erin. I applaud the President on his use of the Defense Production Act in his conversation about General Motors. Good for him. That gives him the muscle of the lot to get companies to actually respond to the production of ventilators which is exactly what we.

Erin Burnett: So let me ask you on that point, General Motors is telling me that this won't change anything that they're doing. They're all out and producing at cost. They do say it will change his ability in terms of ordering things and streamlining. Would you agree with that, or would you say that companies like General Motors were dragging their feet?

Governor Cuomo: Dragging their feet suggests a pejorative. When you use the Defense Production Act and you have the law on your side you can basically order a private company to do something, to manufacture a product. It's a extreme measure no doubt but this is an extreme time. From the President's point of view, from what he said, General Motors was not delivering the product and not gearing up. And look, if a corporation is dealing with it's normal timeframe that suits them, that is one thing, but here the President is saying, I need this product, and I need it fast. If it will cost more money to accelerate the design and coming up to speed and so be it and the federal government will pay it. He's right. These ventilators are going to be a matter of life and death and whether they're delivered in four weeks or six weeks or 10 weeks or 12 weeks, you're talking tens of thousands of lives that will be relying on it.

Erin Burnett: I want to give you a chance to say to people watching right now, last night the President said I don't believe you need 30 or 40,000 ventilators talking about you in New York, sort of saying now, can we order 30,000 ventilators? What do you say to him? Why are you so sure that you are going to need at least that number?

Governor Cuomo: I hope the President is right. I'll go better than what the President said. I hope I don't need any ventilators. I hope this is a bad dream and it all disappears tomorrow. But I can't govern that way. I govern on the data and on the numbers and on the science. I have projections done by some of the best companies on the globe. I am talking to world health leaders, Dr. Fauci, studying what's happening in China, South Korea, etcetera. If you look at the numbers and the trajectory, we are looking at 40,000 possible ventilators, 140,000 possible hospital beds. Those are the numbers, Erin. I don't get into hope and emotion. When it comes to actual planning and a plan of action, use the numbers. We use the science, the data.

Erin Burnett: So the President then said in the briefing, I don't know if you heard this, Governor, because I know you have a lot going on, but he did say that they had shipped you a lot of ventilators and they had sent them to a warehouse, he referenced a warehouse in New Jersey, and that you were still complaining about them, but they were there, and you just weren't aware that they were actually in the warehouse, but that he had delivered many ventilators. Is that true that they were they in a warehouse and you did not know about?

Governor Cuomo: That's the first I've heard the warehouse was in New Jersey, funny way of delivering it to New York. But I knew very well that the federal government delivered 4,000 ventilators. We have been buying ventilators on our own. The ventilators are in a stockpile, they are not yet deployed because we do not need them yet. Right? The whole concept of a stockpile is to build up the reserve so when you hit the apex of the curve you have the supplies. I have enough ventilators today. I'm not worried about today, I'm at about 48,000 people in the hospitals today. I am worried about the apex of the curve that they project that takes that 48,000 to 140,000. And that is when I need ventilators and more PPE and et cetera. And that's what the stockpile is for - by definition a stockpile is not for immediate deployment.

Erin Burnett: Right. Before we go, I want to ask one other thing, because you talked about possibly being 21 days away from the peak in New York. The U.S. Surgeon General today though says he's hopeful that cases will actually start to come down next week in New York. Do you, have you seen any data that would support that conclusion?

Governor Cuomo: Yeah again, these words, Erin, hopeful, you know I don't relate to that concept in this. You have numbers, you have projections by medical experts. I don't know how you can make that statement nationwide because you have different curves in different parts of the country. You have one curve in L.A., one curve in New York, one curve in Florida, do I don't know how you could even say—

Erin Burnett: He said specifically New York.

Governor Cuomo: Oh, well then I don't know what numbers he's looking at because he's not looking at any numbers, any science, any data or any expert that I have heard from. And I don't see how you can plot those numbers that are moving steadily up, have not slowed at all, and think that they are going to turn in in a week.

Erin Burnett: Governor Cuomo, I appreciate your time, thank you, sir.

Governor Cuomo: Good to be with you.