Politics

Gov. Cuomo: ‘Trump’s COVID Scandal Makes What Nixon Did At Watergate Look Innocent’

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Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that President Donald Trump’s handling of COVID-19 made “what Nixon did at Watergate look innocent.”

Cuomo took aim at the president as he touted New York’s response to the coronavirus pandemic during a press conference, laying out the most recent numbers and cheering the fact that Sunday marked the first day since March that New York had recorded zero COVID deaths. (RELATED: Andrew Cuomo Shames Ron DeSantis: ‘You Played Politics With The Virus And You Lost’)

WATCH:

Cuomo began his attack on Trump by saying that the president had repeatedly ignored science.

“At the end of the day science trumps politics, politics does not trump science,” Cuomo said. “You don’t defeat a virus with politics.”

“The president now says his own health officials are lying about the virus. His own CDC health officials are lying about the virus,” Cuomo continued. “Well, if the president is telling the truth, you know what he should do, he should fire them. He should fire them.”

Cuomo went on to say that, if he believed his health commissioner was lying to him, he would fire him immediately.

“If I said in this room my health commissioner is lying about the coronavirus, you know what your first question would be? Governor, if you said he is lying, how do you not fire him? How do you keep him in charge of health policy if you say the person is lying?” Cuomo asked.

Cuomo did say that someone was “clearly lying to the American people,” and immediately turned the spotlight on Trump.

“Trump’s COVID scandal makes what Nixon did at Watergate look innocent. Nobody died in the Watergate scandal,” Cuomo added. “Thousands of people are going to die in this COVID scandal … You look at the facts, the facts clearly demonstrate Trump was wrong from day one. New Yorkers have been right from day one. There is no argument. There is nothing to tweet about. The facts are in, the numbers are in.” (RELATED: Can Trump Follow Nixon’s 1968 Law And Order Campaign To Victory?)

Cuomo made no comment about the rash of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes that followed his order commanding those facilities to take in COVID-positive suspected positive patients.