Gov. Cuomo railed on two of his sometimes-rivals, sometimes-friends Wednesday, saying that President Donald Trump is mismanaging the COVID-19 crisis and that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $1 billion cut to the New York City Police Department this week is largely toothless.
Cuomo is known to often clash with both Trump and de Blasio, albeit in different contexts, but he turned up the heat on both officials Wednesday during a briefing on COVID-19.
For de Blasio, Cuomo went after him in two regards: the lack of compliance with safety measures in New York City in relation to the coronavirus, and a budget plan approved this week to cut $1 billion from the New York City Police Department.
Cuomo said de Blasio and members of the New York City Council should come up with a long-term comprehensive plan for changing the culture of policing in the five boroughs, rather than cut funding for officers without an extended strategy.
"We're taking $1 billion out of the NYPD budget — don't know what it means," Cuomo said. “The protests are not about reducing the budget … They want real, smart change, and you haven’t had a discussion on it.”
De Blasio and lawmakers in New York City will be tasked, just like every other municipality in the state, with developing a plan to reform their police departments over the next nine months. Cuomo ordered municipalities to do so earlier this month.
But Cuomo appeared to suggest Wednesday that the cut in funding wouldn’t do anything to change policing in New York City after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The budget deal will pause hiring of officers, and shift some tasks away from the department.
He also criticized officials in New York City for not cracking down on people who aren’t following the state’s social distancing and safety guidelines.
There’s a lack of compliance statewide, he said, but he singled out New York City and said indoor dining would not be allowed in the five boroughs until there’s evidence that more people are complying with the requirements. That includes masks and social distancing.
"If you have citizen compliance dropping, and you don't have local governments enforcing, then you're going to see the virus up,” Cuomo said.
He said the state will now be creating its own enforcement division to help municipalities enforce the state’s rules.
New York will also now allow everyone in the state — regardless of symptoms, location, or status — to get tested for COVID-19, Cuomo said. The state has a surplus in testing capacity, which will create more opportunities for people to be evaluated, he said.
On Trump, Cuomo repeated his call on Wednesday for the president to ramp up his rhetoric on the virus, and start wearing a mask in public.
Cuomo said that, with infections increasing in several states around the country, Trump will have to boost the federal response to the disease to contain it in those areas. That can only be done if the president tells the public to take the virus seriously, Cuomo said.
“Denying reality does not defeat reality. He has lived in denial, and he has been denying the scientific facts since day one,” Cuomo said. “And now the country is suffering because of the president, and it's time for him to change course.”
Cuomo also called on Trump, earlier this week, to issue a national executive order requiring masks to be worn in public across the country. There’s been no response to that call from the White House.
