Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on MSNBC with Nicolle Wallace

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo called into MSNBC with Nicolle Wallace to discuss New York State's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

AUDIO is available here.

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

Nicole Wallace: New York City and State were the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. As much of the nation sees a huge spike in their infections, New York is about to take another big step in the other direction, in their reopening process, but with some caveats. Joining us now by phone to talk about that is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Governor, thanks for being with us.

Governor Cuomo: Thanks for having me, Nicole.

Nicole Wallace: So I had Mayor Bottoms of Atlanta on yesterday, and she said that you've offered to help Atlanta. Atlanta's dealing with it seems like a confluence of factors. Tests, she was tested, and if she hadn't had access to same-day testing, she would have had to wait an inordinate amount of time for her results. I hear that happening across the country. Is your support going to help her address that?

Governor Cuomo: Well, Nicolle, we're helping cities that are now affected, helping them set up testing, the contact tracing operations. We're helping them with test kits. We're helping them find labs that can turn around the tests faster. It's really a cruel tragedy that four months after this all started and we all learned the lessons, that in some ways we're right back where we started. We're doing everything we can to help everyone.

Nicole Wallace: And that also includes Houston, you've sent some resources to Houston, is that right?

Governor Cuomo: Yes, we set up testing centers in Houston and we've been working with the mayor there.

Nicole Wallace: Let me ask you this, I know you're not an epidemiologist, but people view New York State and New York City as having for the moment licked what, and I have all my fingers crossed hoping that that holds, but how do you have an effective contact tracing program if it takes eight to 10 days to get test results?

Governor Cuomo: Well it can't take eight to 10 days to get test results. You're right, that's the first problem. We have test results in about one day in New York, because if it takes eight to 10 days, by the time you catch up with a positive person, they'll have infected too many people. They have to do a better job of organizing their state labs, the labs that are in the state, getting them part of the process and turning around the results faster.

Nicole Wallace: How much of this is on Donald Trump? How much of this is his failure?

Governor Cuomo: Without getting into politics, by the federal government's own admission, Nicole, they did a report today from the CDC that is damning. The CDC report today says what we believed in New York that the virus first came to New York from Europe. They traced the viral strain and the CDC says their travel ban was too late. By the time they did the China travel ban and the European travel ban that the President likes to tout that the virus was already here in New York and had been circulating. That was the first mistake.

The federal government that was supposed to protect our public health and homeland security failed and that's how the virus came the first time. There's going to be a second failure, which is now, all this explosion all across the rest of the country was totally predictable and we still don't have the operation set up. We're going to see that infection come back to New York and re-infect New York unless we're very lucky.

It's not only the first failure that allowed the virus to come, it's the second failure that four months later we're still talking about 8 days to get testing results.

Nicole Wallace: For all of the tragedy and strain on our hospitals in our city and our state, are you surprised to see governors like Governor Kemp, still twiddling his thumbs about something like masks which are the least invasive, sort of the least offensive way to slow the spread?

Governor Cuomo: Nicole, that we are still talking about masks is indefensible. You have the IHME projection model, which is the model that the White House follows - funded by Gates. They say 40,000 more Americans will die because we didn't have a mask policy. Forty thousand people will die because we didn't have a mask policy. Every health expert says it. Every federal health expert says it. The CDC says it, the NIH says it. That we're allowing politics to allow Americans to die is a level of dysfunction that we haven't seen in this country before.

We know what the real virus is: The virus that we're dealing with is not the COVID virus, it is the virus of American division and partisanship and it's the virus of government incompetence. That's what this nation is dealing with and that's the pandemic. Division and government incompetence and we have to recognize it, treat it with science, we have to unify. Otherwise, we'll never defeat this virus.

Nicole Wallace: That virus, the one of division has injected itself right smack dab in the middle of the conversation. Everyone with kids or everyone who knows kids is having right now about what happens in September. Can you take us inside your thinking for New York State and New York City for schools?

Governor Cuomo: The Trump campaign had a line that was almost incredible: Science should not get in the way of opening schools.

Nicole Wallace: You couldn't make it up.

Governor Cuomo: You couldn't. Again, talk about making the same mistake over and over again. They're talking about reopening schools the same way they talked about reopening the economy. Just do it. Just do it. Just reopen the economy. Well, we saw how well that worked, right? They pounded me for having a phased reopening based on data. Now, New York is reopened and the states that opened prematurely are now closing. Schools are the same thing. You can't - you have to open schools by the science. You're talking about the health and safety of our children. That comes first.

Study the viral spread. If the virus is under control, open the schools. If the virus is not under control, then don't open the schools and study the progress of the virus and do it by the data. That's what we're going to do in New York.

Nicolle Wallace: Do you have enough money to make sure that kids that don't have high-speed internet access or tech savvy moms and dads in the house or parents with the luxury of working from home won't fall behind?

Governor Cuomo: Look, if we are where we are today in New York, if the virus infection rate is where we are today, we open schools. My fear is we have a second wave, not the second wave we originally talked about which was a mutation of the virus. This second wave is just going to be other states infecting us again for a second time. But hopefully we can open schools. If you can't open schools, then, look, between jeopardizing the students' health and doing the best you can on remote learning, I would say do the best you can on remote learning because health and safety has to come first.

Nicolle Wallace: Not to make this about me, but I have a student in New York City in school. Are you saying right now, if things stay on their current trend, that you would have all schools in New York City open fully in September?

Governor Cuomo: If the virus stays where it is now in New York and we keep this level of spread, then you can open schools. Exactly how you would open schools is something that we have to work through. And there are different models of opening schools. The first answer would be yes, you can open and you need safety precautions in place if you are where we are now. So, it could be a modification of the normal operation, but they would open.

Nicolle Wallace: What does our next phase look like? What caveats are you adding? Are you troubled by people hanging outside of restaurants and bars? And it's just a snapshot - I'm sure there are a lot of people being very safe, but what's your sense of how compliant New Yorkers are right now?

Governor Cuomo: 99 percent of New Yorkers are compliant. We were the first state in the United States to do the mask order. We did it back in April and it was the first order in the nation, and it was right. They've gotten the message of masks. I'd say compliance is about 98 percent. The problem is it only takes two or three to create a problem. We are having issues of compliance, especially in New York City, especially around bars and restaurants.

We're talking about going into Phase Four on Monday in New York City. Phase Four is the final opening phase. I am going to limit it. If we do it, only outdoor activities, which means malls don't open and cultural institutions can open, but only outdoor. No indoor activities. We also have some regulations for bars and restaurants.

We allowed outdoor dining. What you're seeing in New York City is these outdoor block parties. They're selling alcohol and you have large congregations. That's not what we anticipated. We have to be careful about that. We're going to have additional regulations on that.

Nicole Wallace: Governor, it's always great to talk to you about all these things. It's great, as a New Yorker, to see you and our state out there helping some of these other emerging hotspots. Thank you so much for jumping on the phone and spending some time with us today.

Governor Cuomo: My pleasure, Nicole. Thank you for having me.