President Donald Trump continues to insist that he has “total authority” on the decision to reopen the country and blasted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) for “want[ing] independence.”
In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Trump wrote, “Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!”
Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2020
The president’s remark is apparently a response to Cuomo’s Monday night CNN interview in which he said, “I don’t agree with the president’s legal analysis. The president doesn’t have total authority. We have a Constitution, we don’t have a king. We have an elected president.”
Cuomo has been among the largest figures during the coronavirus pandemic because New York, and New York City particularly, has been at the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States.
The New York governor said at the beginning of the crisis that he spoke to Trump and urged him to put their previous differences aside.
He said, “Forget the politics, put that aside. Forget the past, put that aside. Forget personalities. These are all indulgences that we don’t have right now.”
Like Trump, Cuomo has been giving daily briefings in which he updates viewers on the status of the pandemic.
Cuomo says that he wants to reopen his state “as soon as possible” but cautioned that there needs to be a “safe” and “coordinated” approach in the decision to reopen the country.
Meanwhile, Trump has insisted that he has “total” authority over the decision to reopen states and in a Monday morning tweet, he set off a constitutional firestorm when he declared that it is the decision of the federal government and the President of the United States to reopen the states.