New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is placing blame on President Donald Trump for allowing individual states to fend for themselves in the midst of a global pandemic without federal assistance.
During his appearance on PBS NewsHour Wednesday, host Judy Woodruff noted he goes into detail in his new book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” about Trump’s response to the outbreak.
She asked Cuomo how much responsibility the president bares for where the nation stands now.
“I would say total responsibility. I was a former federal employee. I was a cabinet secretary under the Clinton administration. I was secretary of Housing and Urban Development. This was a national pandemic. This was a federal crisis. Normally the federal government would take charge. This situation where you have a national pandemic but then you delegate to 50 states to do their own strategy when it’s a virus that goes from border to border,” Cuomo said.
He added, “All 50 states have to find their own PPE. All 50 states have to find their own testing. All 50 states have to organize their own emergency operations. That’s not how this should have been done. This should’ve been done on a nationwide level.”
Watch his comments below:
Cuomo blamed Trump for the spread of the coronavirus throughout the state of New York, as IJR previously reported.
During a press conference in September, Cuomo claimed Trump and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were the cause of the spread of the coronavirus during the onset of the pandemic.
“Donald Trump caused the COVID outbreak in New York,” Cuomo said.
He continued, “That is a fact. It’s a fact that he admitted and the CDC admitted and Fauci admitted.”
The United States is still struggling to slow the spread.
As of Wednesday evening, there have been more than 7.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 216,000 deaths.