Governor Cuomo: "The President is attacking science. What a surprise. No surprise. He's been attacking science from day one. The denial of reality was to deny science and he's done that from day one. At the end of the day, science trumps politics. Politics does not trump science. You don't defeat a virus with politics. You defeat a virus by using science and medicine. That was true from day one. The President now says his own health officials are lying about the virus. His own CDC health officials are lying about the virus. Well, if the President is telling the truth, you know what he should do? He should fire them."
Cuomo: "Trump's COVID scandal makes what Nixon did at Watergate look innocent. Nobody died in the Watergate scandal. Thousands of people are going to die in this COVID scandal and that is all the difference in the world. You look at the facts. The facts clearly demonstrate Trump was wrong from day one and New Yorkers have been right from day one. There's no argument. There's nothing to tweet about. The facts are in. The numbers are in. Look at the number of bodies. Look at the infection rate. New York's numbers have declined while the nation is going up."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo discussed President Trump's failure to take responsibility for the COVID-19 crisis.
VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
And look, it is the federal government because it is the federal government. Sometimes it is what it is, and this has been gross negligence. They have been denying the reality of the situation from the beginning. It doesn't exist, it's going to go away, by Easter we'll reopen, when it gets warm it will go away like it's a miracle. It didn't go away! There was no miracle.
You denied reality. This is their political agenda over public health policy. That's what this is. This is politically inconvenient in an election year. So, deny it. Yeah except you are jeopardizing public health and you're losing lives by your denial and your political agenda. And then when the federal government didn't step up and handle this, this was a federal crisis. Why is New York State or the state of Georgia, or the state of California, or any of these states handling the COVID virus? It's a national issue. The President did a federal emergency declaration.
You know what a federal emergency declaration means? It means a federal emergency. You know who's in charge of federal emergencies? The federal government. That's why they use the word federal in all of those expressions. I was in the federal government. When there's a federal emergency it's the responsibility of the federal government. They just abandoned their post and said it's up to the states. And by the way, they got offended when the states asked for any resources or help from the federal government. If they're not going to step up and address a problem that hurts every state in the United States. Then what is the point of the federal government? I mean if you don't see that as your role. What is the role?
Now the President is attacking science. What a surprise. No surprise. He's been attacking science from day one. The denial of reality was to deny science and he's done that from day one. At the end of the day, science trumps politics. Politics does not trump science. You don't defeat a virus with politics. You defeat a virus by using science and medicine. That was true from day one. The President now says his own health officials are lying about the virus. His own CDC health officials are lying about the virus. Well, if the President is telling the truth, you know what he should do? He should fire them. He should fire them. You know what I would do if I believed my Health Commissioner was lying? I would fire him. If I said in this room, my Health Commissioner is lying about the coronavirus. You know what your first question would be? Governor, if you say he's lying, how do you not fire him? How do you keep him in charge of health policy if you say the person is lying? Because someone is clearly lying to the American people. And people are dying because of it.
Trump's COVID scandal makes what Nixon did at Watergate look innocent. Nobody died in the Watergate scandal. Thousands of people are going to die in this COVID scandal and that is all the difference in the world. You look at the facts. The facts clearly demonstrate Trump was wrong from day one and New Yorkers have been right from day one. There's no argument. There's nothing to tweet about. The facts are in. The numbers are in. Look at the number of bodies. Look at the infection rate. New York's numbers have declined while the nation is going up. New York is down 70 percent. These other states up over 800 percent. Florida up 1300 percent. Who's right who's wrong? What's there to argue about? Those are the numbers. Tell me the numbers are wrong. It's all across the country and it is undeniable. And it's now a threat to the state of New York.
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