On Wednesday evening, former President Donald Trump bragged about how he worked to help Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the Empire State became a COVID-19 epicenter, falsely claiming that he gave “everything” the state needed to save lives. He also attacked fellow Republicans for not “hitting” Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden.
Speaking to Newsmax Wednesday evening, Trump addressed the report about the Cuomo administration’s alleged withholding of data related to the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19.
“I look at it, and it’s surprising what happened in New York, and we did, we gave [Cuomo] him the Javits Center, we gave him the ship, the great hospital ship and essentially they weren’t used,” Trump said. “Spent a lot of money, and they weren’t used … you could have the patients go there. You could have people go, it would have saved a lot of lives. It’s too bad.”
Trump, however, did not mention how he threatened to withhold resources unless he received obsequious praise from governors and officials battling the coronavirus crisis and singled out Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not giving it to him
Asked about the political fallout, trump said it was unusual to see Democrats go after one of their own — before taking a dig at members of his own party.
“I’m a little surprised because usually the Democrats don’t do it but a lot of people don’t like him. I got along with him, you know we actually got along sort of okay,” he noted. “He’s being hit hard, and he’s being hit hard by his own people. Those are the people that are really hitting him. It’s pretty amazing.”
He berated the GOP for not going after the left more.
“The Republicans are soft, they only hit their own. Like [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch [McConnell]. They hit their own, they don’t hit. If he spent the same time hitting [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and [President] Biden, the Republicans would be much better off, that I can tell you. But no,” Trump said.
