Gov. Andrew Cuomo. | Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said President Donald Trump and his administration are “basically in denial” about the coronavirus pandemic and aren’t doing enough to combat it.
Confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. are rising, and the death toll has topped 125,000, leading some states, like Texas and Florida, to roll back some of the measures they’ve taken to reopen their economies.
“This is a continuation of the first wave, and it was a failed effort to stop the first wave in the country,” Cuomo said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If you listen to what the president says, what they said at the White House briefing, they’re saying what they said three months ago. They’re basically in denial about the problem. They don’t want to tell the American people the truth.”
“And they don’t want to have any federal response,” he added. “I knew what they were saying: ‘You’re on your own.’ And it’s not a good feeling, but it’s sort of liberating.”
Cuomo said the rate of transmission, as monitored through extensive testing, should drive the reopening schedule. He expressed optimism about how his own state was faring, after becoming the epicenter of the health crisis earlier this year. But Cuomo also said he was worried that rising infection rates in other states would begin pushing up New York’s rate.
“This is a virus; it doesn’t respond to politics,” he said. “You can’t tweet at it. You have to treat it. And we never did that.”
