President Donald Trump insisted in a tweet early Wednesday that he is working hard to help both the state of New York and New York City fight the growing coronavirus epidemic, noting that he has sent 4,000 ventilators and that he does like Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
"I am working very hard to help New York City & State, dealing with both Mayor & Governor and producing tremendously for them, including four new medical centers and four new hospitals," the president said on his Twitter account. "Fake News that I won't help them because I don't like Cuomo (I do). Just sent 4000 ventilators!"
Trump on Tuesday slammed Cuomo regarding his criticism over the administration's slow response to provide ventilators, saying during a Fox News town hall that the governor had the chance to buy them in 2015.
"He had 16,000 ventilators that he could have bought and he didn't buy them," Trump said. "He should've ordered the ventilators. They can't blame us for that. Gov. Cuomo is supposed to be buying his own ventilators."
Trump's comment appeared to be in reference to an opinion piece in the New York Post by former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, who said that Cuomo and other leaders learned in 2015 that the state needed 18,000 ventilators in the case of a pandemic but only 2,000 were on hand.
Cuomo has been sounding the alarm about ventilators, including on Tuesday after Ford CEO Jim Hackett said the carmaker is teaming up with General Electric to build ventilators, but that they won't be ready until early June, reports The New York Times.
"I don't need ventilators in six months," Cuomo said. "And I don't need ventilators in five months, four months, or three months."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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