President Donald Trump said he would meet with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the White House on Tuesday.
“They are getting it together in New York,” Trump at a coronavirus news briefing said Monday of Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic in the state, which has become the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak.
“He’s coming to the Oval Office tomorrow afternoon,” Trump told reporters. “Andrew is going to be coming in with some of his people, so we look forward to that.”
Cuomo’s office also confirmed Tuesday’s meeting.
The governor and the president have carried on a hot-and-cold relationship throughout the pandemic, and Cuomo has emerged as one of the strongest voices on the crisis outside of the White House. The governor has vacillated between praise and criticism of the federal government’s response with the president typically responding in kind.
In Monday’s briefing, Trump highlighted remarks Cuomo made during one of his daily briefings in Albany in which Cuomo agreed with Trump’s assessment that states should be in charge of their coronavirus testing systems.
Asked why Cuomo was traveling to Washington for an in-person meeting given concerns about travel, Trump said it was the governor’s idea.
“I don’t know. He wanted to. We — believe it or not — we get along, OK?” he said, adding that Cuomo was “very generous yesterday in particular.”
Anna Gronewold contributed to this report.
