President Donald Trump continued his misleading attacks on Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as it ravages the state.
New York has borne the brunt of much of the early explosion of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Nearly 43% of the more than 156,000 confirmed cases nationwide were located in New York, as of the afternoon of March 30.
During a “Fox & Friends” phone interview on March 30, Trump was asked about polls showing high approval for Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, and speculation in an opinion piece in the New York Times about Cuomo’s presidential potential.
“Well one of the reasons his numbers are high on handling it is because of the federal government, because we give him ships and we give him ventilators and we give him all of the things that we’re giving him,” Trump said. “One of the reasons he’s successful is because we’ve helped make him successful.”
During the interview, Trump took several shots at the New York Democrat. The president claimed that despite Cuomo appealing to the federal government to provide more masks, ventilators and other equipment from federal emergency stockpiles, New York has not used the 4,000 ventilators the federal government has provided.
As for the shortage of masks, during a press conference the night before, Trump suggested a spike in the number of masks being used at one New York hospital seemed suspicious, and he implored reporters to look into whether masks may be “going out the back door.”
In his public comments, Trump also questioned why thousands of ventilators sent by the federal government to New York were being held in storage, even as Cuomo pleads for more.
At a press conference on March 29, Trump said that with thousands of ventilators sitting in storage in New York, “maybe they didn’t need them so badly.”
Read more at: Trump vs. Cuomo, Round 2 - FactCheck.org
- With mask use spiking at one New York hospital, Trump speculated that masks may be “going out the back door,” suggesting they are being stolen. He has provided no evidence, however, that theft is driving the increase. A bioresponse expert told us that during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is “reasonable” for hard-hit hospitals “to see its mask use increase by an order of magnitude.”
- The president said that 4,000 ventilators delivered to New York from the federal stockpile are being kept in a “warehouse which happens to be located – which is interesting — in Edison, New Jersey,” and so “maybe they didn’t need them so badly.” Cuomo said the ventilators are being stored in anticipation of peak demand in the coming weeks.
New York has borne the brunt of much of the early explosion of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Nearly 43% of the more than 156,000 confirmed cases nationwide were located in New York, as of the afternoon of March 30.
During a “Fox & Friends” phone interview on March 30, Trump was asked about polls showing high approval for Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, and speculation in an opinion piece in the New York Times about Cuomo’s presidential potential.
“Well one of the reasons his numbers are high on handling it is because of the federal government, because we give him ships and we give him ventilators and we give him all of the things that we’re giving him,” Trump said. “One of the reasons he’s successful is because we’ve helped make him successful.”
During the interview, Trump took several shots at the New York Democrat. The president claimed that despite Cuomo appealing to the federal government to provide more masks, ventilators and other equipment from federal emergency stockpiles, New York has not used the 4,000 ventilators the federal government has provided.
As for the shortage of masks, during a press conference the night before, Trump suggested a spike in the number of masks being used at one New York hospital seemed suspicious, and he implored reporters to look into whether masks may be “going out the back door.”
In his public comments, Trump also questioned why thousands of ventilators sent by the federal government to New York were being held in storage, even as Cuomo pleads for more.
At a press conference on March 29, Trump said that with thousands of ventilators sitting in storage in New York, “maybe they didn’t need them so badly.”
Read more at: Trump vs. Cuomo, Round 2 - FactCheck.org
