Donald Trump is holding a virtual town hall hosted by Fox News on Tuesday and one of the questions asked was how he’s doing dealing with the country’s governors through this crisis, especially the Democratic governors.
All is well, Trump said, citing California governor Gavin Newsom.
“Governor Newsom and I have been getting along,” Trump said. “We’re speaking to each other, whether it’s conference calls.”
But Trump added that it has to be a mutually friendly relationship.
“It’s a two way street. They have to treat us well also,” Trump said. Trump went on to point, once again, to New York governor Andrew Cuomo saying earlier today that the Trump administration had not provided the necessary amount of ventilators to his state.
FOX NEWS DOCTOR: Do you think that kind of movement where you’re the leader, and other people work with you, will help us to isolate the virus?
TRUMP: I do… we are doing very well with almost all the governors… [but] it’s a two-way street, they have to treat us well also. pic.twitter.com/X5eM4ZTAmj [1]
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 24, 2020 [2]
Trump seems to have a particular ire for New York’s Andrew Cuomo, and seemed to blame him for New York’s high rate of coronavirus:
"Do you blame the governor for that?" — with a smug smirk on his face, Trump tries to pin blame for New York's coronavirus outbreak on Gov. Cuomo because he allowed people to travel from Asia back to New York City during the holidays pic.twitter.com/6syuTlbWdB [3]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020 [4]
Earlier today Cuomo said he was not getting enough ventilators to keep up with the pandemic curve. Trump and Cuomo have built a fairly cordial and friendly relationship as they’ve kept in touch though the pandemic crisis. But just now at this virtual town hall Trump said Cuomo “should’ve ordered the ventilators.”
“He had a chance in 2016 to buy 16,000 at a very low price and he didn’t do that,” Trump said as he looked at one of the papers he brought out to the town hall.
"He's supposed to be buying his own ventilators" — Trump is now attacking Andrew Cuomo for saying the federal government should do more to provide New York with needed medical gear pic.twitter.com/qPGd6diWm1 [5]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020 [6]