Gov. Cuomo Skewers GOP Senators: 'People Are Dying, You Can't Stop The Politics Even Now?'

By Karoli Kuns — April 29, 2020

During his daily press conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo highlighted the efforts of Americans to make masks to protect healthcare workers in contrast to Republican senators threatening to leave New York twisting in the wind.

Cuomo ripped into DC Republican senators for their selfish attitude toward the states first.

"Who do state and local governments fund? State and local governments fund police, firefighters, nurses, school teachers, food banks," he said. "That's who I want to fund. And that's what it means to fund a state and local government, and that's the choice that they're making."

He went on to give a slow clap to the symbolic and useless tributes to healthcare workers, including the expensive flyovers by the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels, which he viewed as empty gestures and little more.

"[DC Republicans] want to fund corporate America. That's who puts money in their pockets," Cuomo said. "And I say, let's fund working Americans."

Warming up, he went on. "It's just smoke and mirrors to avoid the American people seeing the reality, which is whose pocket they want to put money in versus whose pocket state and local governments want to fund."

Let's just stop for one moment. If there was going to be one moment to hit the pause button, the moment would be now. You have human suffering. You have people dying. You can't stop the politics, even in this moment? Even in this moment when people are dying all across the country, you still want to play your politics? That's what this is about, and that's why it is so disturbing on a fundamental level. Politics. I'm getting up and i'm reading that death toll number. I'm speaking to the widows and the brothers and the sisters and the children of people who died. And then we're going to play politics? With funding that's necessary to save people's lives? I mean, when does it stop? And the disconnect is between the political leadership and the people.

Cuomo has said a lot of this before but this time he ended on an upbeat note. Displaying some of the thousands of homemade masks sent by Americans, he pointed out the good in people versus the rottenness of the politicians who want to serve their masters instead of ordinary people.

Follow the American people. Look at what they're doing. Look at how they're reacting. And politicians, try to be half as good as the American people. I want to show you a self-portrait that was done by American people. This is a self-portrait of America, okay? That's a self-portrait of America. And you know what it spells? It spells love. That's what it spells. You have to look carefully, but that's what the American people are saying.

We receive thousands of masks from all across America. Unsolicited, in the mail, homemade, creative, personal, with beautiful notes, from all across the country, literally, just saying, thinking about you, we care, we love you, we want to help. And this is just people's way of saying we care and we want to help. This is what this country is about and this is what Americans are about. A little bit more of this and a little bit less of the partisanship and the ugliness, and this country would be a better place. Thank you.

As one mask maker among others on our C&L team, I concur. People care and are loving and the Republicans in DC right now are not representatives of the people. We are not going to consign our elderly and veterans to a Covid death and we are not going to shove states off the map by forcing them into bankruptcy. Period.