Governor Cuomo: "[The White House has] believed from the beginning that they can't control the virus. That's the only rationale that explains the denial and the lying. If you believed you could control it, then you'd try to control it; if you don't believe you can control it, then you lie about it and deny it and you minimize it They surrendered without firing a shot. It was the great American surrender. Americans don't surrender. And they didn't even put up a fight and what we learned in New York was if you put up a fight you would have won because New York won. Other states won also."
Cuomo: "If New York didn't control the virus, then the curve would have continued to go up and we would have had hundreds of thousands of people in our hospital system and we would have been overwhelmed. Flattening the curve is controlling the virus, right, by definition, friends President Trump, Commander-in-Chief, gets attacked by an enemy and his policy: preemptive capitulation. That's what they did and now we had 217,000 people dead because of preemptive capitulation."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo responded to comments made by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Sunday morning that the U.S. is not "going to control" COVID-19.
AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Mr. Meadows said something interesting today - Chief of Staff to the President. He said, "We can't control the virus." That was a very telling statement that he said that. Because it basically admitted and encapsulated the way they've handled COVID from the start. Remember back in January they had that Navarro memo that said millions would get infected. The President then denied it and then lied about it. They have believed from the beginning that they can't control the virus. That's the only rationale that explains the denial and the lying. If you believed you could control it, then you'd try to control it; if you don't believe you can control it, then you lie about it and deny it and you minimize it.
Meadows spoke the truth today, as to their opinion, "You can't control the virus." Now, he is fundamentally wrong on the facts, because we are in the state of New York and New York proved definitively you can control the virus. When you go from the highest infection rate in the country to one of the lowest it means you controlled the virus; it's not rhetoric, it's not subject to interpretation. You had a very high infection rate. You took certain measures and reduced the infection rate. What term do you use to define that situation? You controlled the virus - controlled. You didn't eliminate the virus, but you controlled the virus. If New York didn't control the virus, then the curve would have continued to go up and we would have had hundreds of thousands of people in our hospital system and we would have been overwhelmed. Flattening the curve is controlling the virus, right, by definition, friends. This is not political discussion; this is just the English language. Flattening the curve is controlling the virus. Controlling is a different word than eliminating. We controlled the virus, so he is wrong, but that's what they believe and that's why they never tried to control the virus, and that is why this country is in in the situation it is in, because they didn't believe they can control the virus. They could have controlled the virus - we are still controlling the virus. Look at the numbers going up all across the nation. We are still controlling the virus. They believed you can't control the virus.
They capitulated. They surrendered. They surrendered without firing a shot. It was the great American surrender. Americans don't surrender. And they didn't even put up a fight and what we learned in New York was if you put up a fight you would have won because New York won. Other states won also.
"We can't control the virus." Trump's theory: preemptive capitulation. Don't even try. Just surrender preemptively. President Trump, Commander-in-Chief, getsattacked by an enemy and his policy: preemptive capitulation. That's what they did and now we had 217,000 people dead because of preemptive capitulation.
They were wrong then. They're wrong now. Simplest thing they can do now is what Fauci said, what CDC says, what Birx says - wear masks, do a national mask mandate. Preemptive capitulation, you did Americans a disservice. Americans don't surrender. Americans fight and there was no reason to capitulate to this enemy because we can control it.
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