New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday hit back at US President Donald Trump for his comment on having total authority over states, saying America does not have a king.
Cuomo was responding to the comments made by Trump during the White House briefing on Monday when he said that the President has total authority over when the restrictions imposed across the country due to coronavirus can be lifted.
The federal-state relationship is central to our democracy. We have to remember today that the balance between the state and the federal articulated in the constitution is the essence of our democracy.
We don't a have a king in this country, we didn't want a king so we have a constitution and we elect the president, Cuomo said in his daily coronavirus briefing.
Trump had said that when somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total and that is the way it has got to be.
The authority of the President of the United States having to do with the subject we're talking about is total, he had said, adding that "They can't do anything without the approval of the President of the United States.
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Cuomo said the President's comment that he has total authority for determining how and when states reopen is not an accurate statement in my opinion.
He said Trump's remarks that he has total authority over the states and the nation cannot go uncorrected. It's just a factual statement that is factually wrong.
That statement cannot stand. It is not only violative of the constitution, it is violative of the very concept of democracy, he said.
Cuomo said the total number of hospitalisations continues to go down and remains flat, a good sign we think we are at the apex on the plateau.
New York state recorded 778 more deaths on April 13, taking the death toll to 10,834.
You look at the past few days and the number of lives lost, it's basically flat at a devastating level of pain and grief, he said, adding that other evidence suggests that the state is seeing a flattening of the curve.
Cuomo said in his briefing on Monday that the President was clearly unhappy.
The Governor also referred to a number of tweets by Trump attacking him and state governors.
Cuomo's been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state's responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won't happen! a tweet by Trump read.
Another tweet said: Tell the Democrat Governors that Mutiny On The Bounty' was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!