In his daily briefing on Saturday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted Republican lawmakers for treating blue state coronavirus deaths as less significant than those that happen in red states.
“For senators to be talking about, I’m not going to bail out blue states because the blue states have more coronavirus cases, shame on you,” the governor said.
He added, “Shame on you to look at the death toll in this nation and say I want to count how many people passed away by their political party.”
Cuomo, showing the leadership that Trump is incapable of showing, said now is the time to set politics aside and try to be “great leaders.”
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Video:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo goes off on Republicans: “For senators to be talking about, I’m not going to bail out blue states because the blue states have more coronavirus cases, shame on you.” #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/R76gRwFmJT
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 16, 2020
Cuomo said:
Let’s put the politics aside. If there’s ever a moment in this government, in this country, where it’s not about politics, this is the moment. I mean, for senators to be talking about, I’m not going to bail out blue states because the blue states have more coronavirus cases, shame on you. Shame on you to look at the death toll in this nation and say I want to count how many people passed away by their political party and I’m more interested in states where Republicans live than where Democrats live. We’re not Democrats or Republicans. We’re Americans. That’s what comes first. And in a time of crisis, we’ve always been Americans. And the great leaders, Democrats and Republican, have always said that. Go back and look at the great Republicans. Go back and look at the great Democrats and see how they operated. And try to be great in this moment, senator and congressperson.
Trump has turned a global pandemic into another red vs. blue fight
There are a lot of local and state leaders in both parties who have followed Gov. Cuomo’s advice to set politics aside and do the right thing for the country in this moment of crisis. Many of them have seen their approval ratings surge in recent months.
But the most powerful leader in the world, along with his supporters in Congress and right-wing propaganda machine on TV, have turned this pandemic into another red vs. blue political fight.
At the peak of the crisis, Trump showed that he was more willing to give aid to states who praised him as opposed to those who were critical of his response. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed the president by calling the federal stimulus package a “blue state bailout.”
Now, as America tries to reopen the economy safety, Trump has politicized the very idea of wearing a mask when going out, which his own coronavirus task force recommends.
This virus has done enough damage on its own, infecting about 1.5 million Americans and killing nearly 90,000. Donald Trump’s decision to politicize that carnage has only made the crisis worse.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
