Coronavirus US: New York mayor blasts Trump

Donald Trump has been blasted by two high ranking officials in his former home state of New York just hours apart over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio blasted US President Donald Trump in a highly personal attack on Sunday — accusing him of abandoning the Big Apple and leaving it to “drop dead” without federal funding.

“I need a former New Yorker to step up — President Donald Trump,” Mr de Blasio said at a press briefing on Sunday.

The mayor said Mr Trump owed his success to the city which had provided him with many opportunities.

“(You) could actually help to save your hometown, or you can turn away and you can fail to protect New Yorkers,” he said.

“And right now, you are failing to protect the very people who you grew up around.

“When New York City’s in need, where are you?”

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The US is now the worst affected country by the coronavirus, with more than 732,000 cases, and more than 38,000 deaths. The US has more than half a million more cases of coronavirus than other hard hit nations around the world including Spain and Italy, which have just over 191,000 and 175,000 cases respectively.

New York State is the country’s coronavirus epicentre, and has been badly affected, with more than 13,200 deaths. The state total doesn’t include more than 4,000 New York City deaths that were deemed to be caused by the virus on death certificates but weren’t confirmed by a lab test.

While the daily deaths in New York state dropped under 550 for the first time in over two weeks on Saturday as hospital admission continue to decline, the crisis is far from over: Hospitals are still reporting nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 patients per day and the temptation for cooped-up New Yorkers to take advantage of the spring weather presents new challenges to keep the outbreak in check, according to Mr de Blasio.

US President Donald Trump at a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 18, 2020. Picture: Patrick Semansky.

‘ARE YOU TELLING NEW YORK TO DROP DEAD?’

During his Sunday briefing, Mr de Blasio also accused the president of failing to take necessary steps to get Republicans - who have called for $250 billion in extra loans for small businesses but have opposed congressional Democrats’ push for funding for cash-strapped cities and states - to approve a stimulus deal.

“Literally with a snap of his fingers Donald Trump could fix that,” the mayor said.

“If he would just say the word, the Senate would jump.

“So President Trump, what’s going on? Cat got your tongue?

“Mr. Trump, Mr. President, Are you gonna’ save New York City, or are you telling New York City to drop dead? You have to speak up now.”

Mr de Blasio’s comments come one day after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also took aim at the president over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tensions escalated on Saturday when Mr Trump posted a Tweet telling the governor to “spend more time doing and less time complaining” in response to a televised briefing Mr Cuomo had given where he claimed his state, the worst hit by coronavirus, had been short-changed by US federal coronavirus relief packages.

Mr Cuomo fired back at the President in a later briefing, saying he should “get up and go to work” rather than being at home “watching TV”.

“First of all, if he’s sitting at home watching TV, maybe he can get up and go to work,” Mr Cuomo said, responding to the President’s tweets.

“He wants to say, ‘I’ve done enough!’ None of us have done enough. We haven’t, because it’s not over.”

Governor Cuomo should spend more time “doing” and less time “complaining”. Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking! We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

Remember: We still have about 2,000 new COVID hospitalizations daily.

And we lost 540 New Yorkers yesterday.

That is a soul-crushing loss.

When you feel tired of social distancing, think of those we lost. That's what's at stake here.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 18, 2020

Mr Cuomo insisted there were a number of ongoing issues for the federal government to deal with, including funding testing for the people of America.

“He’s doing nothing! He says it’s up to the states (to open up the country), which it always was. Then he calls it a ‘fifty piece puzzle’. It’s not a puzzle. That’s called a map of the United States.”

The Trump administration says the US is conducting as many as 120,000 tests a day, the bulk of which is done by commercial laboratories and some by state public health facilities. The president says that is enough for a phased reopening, and on Saturday he praised states that have begun to do so.

But experts say that number is low, obscuring the extent of the virus’s spread and leaving newly reopened states vulnerable to a new wave of infections.

On Thursday Mr Trump outlined his “Opening Up America Again” plan, which was a road map for different states to ease social distancing restrictions. He said at the time some states were close to being ready to open within days, referring to the country as “a beautiful puzzle”.

“Fifty pieces, they’re all different,” he said,

[e-mail] | @Megan_Palin