As of this weekend, New York is one of the states that have been able to turn the tide of the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, on Sunday, the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) released numbers revealing the lowest number of new deaths in a single day in the state since the pandemic began. During an appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday morning, Cuomo implicitly shamed the Trump administration and its allies for their incompetent response to the pandemic. The Trump administration has consistently refused to take a strong stance against the virus, even as cases rise, but as Cuomo noted over the weekend, you can’t just tweet the virus out of existence.
Cuomo commented:
‘This is a virus. It doesn’t respond to politics. You can’t tweet at it. You have to treat it — and we never did that. Now, my fear is: we had, today, five deaths. Now, we offer thoughts and prayers to every death in our state, but five deaths is the lowest number we have had since this started. We are on the exact opposite end… I’m now afraid of the spread coming from other states, because we are one country, and people travel, and I am afraid the infection rates in other states will come back to New York and raise that rate again.’
In response to the governor’s concerns, the tristate area, including New York, has issued an order for travelers from newly hard-hit states to quarantine themselves for two weeks upon their arrival in the area. Watch the governor’s comments below:
WATCH: Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) says the virus "doesn't respond to politics." #MTP #IfItsSunday@NYGovCuomo: "You can't tweet at it. You have to treat it. And we never did that."
"I am afraid the infection rates in other states will come back to New York." pic.twitter.com/INJ5dXgC3X
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 28, 2020
Throughout the pandemic, President Donald Trump himself has consistently refused to take the science of the situation seriously. He won’t even wear a mask in most circumstances, although face masks have been proven to significantly curtail the spread of the virus.
Trump’s anti-science position has been backed up by shills like Vice President Mike Pence, who’s been a leader of the White House’s Coronavirus task force.
During an interview with CBS that aired over the weekend, Pence pointed to the political concept of federalism — entailing the separation of powers between national and local levels — as an explanation for the lack of a more concrete national response. But, as host John Dickerson noted, the virus has never heard of federalism!
.@VP Pence: "One of the elements of the genius of America is the principle of federalism, of state and local control…"@jdickerson: "The virus doesn't know federalism….this is a problem that requires a coordinated national result" https://t.co/AGynTP0z4r pic.twitter.com/pkhR3KylGx
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 28, 2020
Asked why the president hasn’t come out and said that everyone should wear a mask, Pence claimed:
‘We believe that every state has a unique situation. And I want to be clear, while we’re monitoring about 16 states that are seeing outbreaks, it represents about 4 percent of all the counties in this country. 34 states are not seeing a rise in positivity, and they have different measures, different requirements, and different guidance in place. I mean, one of the elements of the genius of America is the principle of federalism, of state and local control… We’ve made it clear that we want to defer to governors, we want to defer to local officials, and people should listen to them.’
Pence’s haughty, self-righteous preaching about “federalism” means nothing for actually stopping the spread of the virus!
WATCH: @jdickerson presses @VP Pence on why the administration and @RealDonaldTrump has muddled messaging to #maskup during #COVID@VP: "One of the elements of the genius of America is the principle of federalism, of state and local control…we want to defer to local officials" pic.twitter.com/lSEaJfYT1k
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 27, 2020
