Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on MSNBC Live with Katy Tur and Chuck Todd

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC Live with Katy Tur and Chuck Todd to discuss New York's ongoing effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

AUDIO of the Governor's interview is available here.

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

Chuck Todd: Joining me now is the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo thank you for spending a few minutes with us. I know we want to talk a little bit more about the contact tracing program. I want to start with this. I know you're working with Bloomberg Philanthropies on this and that it is sort of a public, private partnership. I guess my question is should it be a public, private partnership, number one? And number two, is this enough? Are you still going to need federal help for the size of the contact tracing army that you're going to need?

Governor Cuomo: Thanks. Good to be with you, Chuck. Look, we're at a place that we've never been before. We have these big looming challenges, frightening, uncharted water. I understand there's an initial resistance to try something big, try something new. A lot of risk involved, but we don't really have an option. We have to do what we have to do, that's what made this country this country.

We're all talking about testing. We have get to get testing up to scale as soon as you get testing up to scale you have to have the tracing. The testing alone, by the way, can help you monitor the virus, monitor the spread, inform you on the reopening. Then you have to get the tracing to actually slow the spread. The numbers are the problem on tracing. We did testing yesterday, we had 4,600 positives yesterday. Tracing means you take all of those 4,600 positives from yesterday and you start going down and tracing all the contacts. That is an overwhelming task, so yes, we estimate between 6,000 to 17,000 people in the state. Mike Bloomberg is organizing the effort for us.

How do you do it? How do you train? How do you test? How do you recruit people this quickly? But it's a massive undertaking.

Chuck Todd: I don't mean to throw back, we know that, I guess we could use this as AmeriCorps, you could create sort of a HealthCorps if the federal government wanted in on this. Is that something you think that you would like to see because in New York you're going to have a large unemployment line. This is one way, at least temporarily to find some people work.

Governor Cuomo: Don't worry about throwing back, Chuck. Would I like to see the federal government involved? Of course, of course. I'd like to see the federal government involved with the recruitment and the people and the funding. So, of course, but we do what we have to do. We are where we are so we can talk about what we would like to see. In the meantime, I have to get things running here tomorrow. We're dealing with the situation we have and we'll put together the army, so to speak.

Mike Bloomberg, who's a great talent, has stepped up to help. To the extent the federal government wants to get involved and wants to help, I say amen.

Chuck Todd: Katy?

Katy Tur: I'm at Grand Central. Let me speak for the millions of Americans that live in the tri-state area and are wondering this: How am I supposed to safely get on mass transit once this shutdown starts to end and the restrictions start to ease? What is my commute going to look like?

Governor Cuomo: Well, Katy, we announced something today talking about doing something we've never done before. We are starting to disinfect every subway train every night. For the first time ever, we're going to close down service from 1:00 am to 5:00 am. That four-hour shutdown will allow us to disinfect all the trains, New York City subway trains, Metro North that goes North, Long Island Rail Road that goes out to the railroad. Because we have the essential workers, who were so grateful to because they're coming to work every day even though they know the risks. The people in the hospitals, they food delivery people. We all say thank you. But gratitude is best acted upon, right?

I want them to know that they have safe, clean, decent transportation. And that means we have to disinfect the trains every 24 hours. The virus can live on a train for two or three days. So, we're starting that next week. It's first time ever. We've never disinfected trains like this before. The 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. hours will be covered by the MTA. They'll provide alternative transportation be it buses or dollar vans, or they'll use Uber, Lyft, et cetera, if they don't have a route to get people home.

But the ridership is way down. It's down 90 percent, and 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. are the least traveled hours. It's another thing we never imagined doing. But we have to do and we're going to do it. And Mayor de Blasio, New York City mayor, myself, the surrounding county executives, we're all in agreement and we're going to start in a week.

Katy Tur: I think ridership is obviously down. Just look around me, there is nobody here in Grand Central. 90 percent down as you said. What happens though when the State starts to reopen and when people start to get back on the subways and in larger numbers? How do you social distance on a New York City subway? How do you not touch anything on a New York City subway?

Governor Cuomo: You don't, is the short answer. That's one reason why the virus spreads so quickly in the city, there are a few reasons. Number one, it was coming from Europe and nobody had had an idea. We closed down China. But by the time we closed down China travel, the virus went to Europe and then we got the virus from Europe. Two million people came from Europe during the time period in early January and February up to March, and we had no idea. But it is also the density of New York City. You put your finger right on it, Katy. It's the subways, it's the buses, it's the sidewalks. That's why now what we're doing is disinfecting is going to be a very big deal. You can't really open the subways ever until you have the pandemic under control. Because, you're right, you can't socially distance on a subway platform. And that's why we have to phase in the reopening of the economy and phase it in with the full demand of the subway system. Because if you open up everything, people will go right back to the subways, the virus spread will go through the roof in a matter of days, I guarantee it.

Katy Tur: So Governor, are you saying you're not going to reopen the subways now for - until there is a vaccine? Or until there is a treatment? I mean what you just said seems to me that we're not going to be getting back on mass transit en masse for the foreseeable future.

Governor Cuomo: Yeah, well first of all, the subways are open now, right? We never closed the subways. We have to keep the subways open because essential workers need the subways to get to work. You close down the subways, you don't have doctors, you don't have nurses, you don't have food delivery people, you don't have municipal employees. So, the subways are open. If you reopen the economy fully, then you will drive many people into mass transit and many people on the sidewalks and you can't reopen the economy until you know you can handle the pandemic. So it's the economy first, sidewalks are second, restaurants are second, bars are second, right? It's when can you increase the density and volume? That's tied to reopening the economy, but the subways are open.

Chuck Todd: Governor, at the end of the day you're going to have to make some tough choices on your budgets going forward. There is just so much inundation, there are so many needs, there are going to be a lot of people that say we have to fix this, we need to fix that, you need to pick and choose. I'm curious as you prepare New Yorkers, what are services that are likely going to be something you might have to cut back for a while in order to prioritize the health and safety of another line of workers? I mean, are there certain government services that's New Yorkers are going to have to prepare themselves for not having or not having it the way they had it before?

Governor Cuomo: Chuck, first, I'm not going to, tough decisions. Every governor has to make tough decisions every day in this situation, right. Closedown was a tough decision. All of these are tough decisions. But, that comes with the job. But, I'm not going to pick between the health and safety of any worker. And, yes, the budgets are going to be tight. The economy closed down, ravaged every state government and every local government. But before we get to triage on the state side or local government side, I want to see the federal government step up and do their job. They have not funded state and local governments. They want to fund airlines, they want to fund hotels, they want to fund restaurants, big corporations. But they haven't funded state and local governments.

State and local governments, what does that mean? That means police, fire, healthcare workers, all the people we now glorify as heroes. That's who state and local governments fund. And for Washington to be saying they're not going to fund state and local governments, states can go bankrupt, was Senator McConnell's statement, okay. States can go bankrupt. They want to help the economy, they want states to go bankrupt? I mean, can you find a single economist who would say, that'll help the markets, letting states go bankrupt. So they have to step up. They have to do their job. They want to take care—

Chuck Todd: Did you really believe him? Did you really believe him when he said that or did you think it was a negotiating ploy? It certainly looked like he was looking to horse trade on this, and whether you like it or not—

Governor Cuomo: I can't believe. No, Chuck, I can't believe. I'm shocked. Gambling.

Chuck Todd: I guess the question is, what is the better way to convince some of these conservatives that New York's budget is New York's budget, Florida's budget is Florida's budget?

Governor Cuomo: Well, first of all, it wasn't just Senator McConnell, and I can't believe he would say such an obnoxious comment in public just to negotiate in Washington some back room deal. Save that garbage for the back room deal, right, Chuck? And he doubled down on it. He said states should go bankrupt and then he said this will be a blue state bailout. Then Senator Scott from Florida said the same thing, why should we bail out these Democrats, right? Like it's only Democrats that get coronavirus. This partisanship is toxic and poison. But they have to step up and fund, they can't just say we're funding corporate America, but working Americans, they're on their own. They can't say it. Or they can say it, they won't get away with it.

Katy Tur: Sorry to interrupt you guys. Governor Cuomo, I've got a question about the supply chain. There's already talk about some meat being limited on the grocery market shelves. Are there supply chain issues that are keeping you up at night?

Governor Cuomo: A lot of things are keeping me up at night, Katie. Supply chain issues more on the medical equipment and PPE, et cetera. So far, so good on the essential services, if you will. Food, power, public transportation. That was my nightmare, you know, one of my early nightmares was what happens if you say to the essential workers go to work and they say no? They say it's too dangerous, I'm afraid of this COVID virus. You want to see real anarchy? No food, no public transportation, no power. So having the essential workers stand up the way they did and show up the way they did, they were the thin line between chaos and stability, and that's why when it comes to the subways and keeping them clean and doing all sorts of extraordinary work, it's the least we can do to show our gratitude and to keep those services running. But on that side of the equation, we haven't seen any problems. I understand about the meat processing plants, but we haven't seen it or felt it.

Chuck Todd: Governor Cuomo, thanks for spending a few minutes with both of us here this afternoon, much appreciated, stay safe, stay healthy.