New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said he’s not going to engage President Trump in politics, hours after Mr. Trump suggested Mr. Cuomo would have been a better Democratic presidential candidate than Joseph R. Biden.
“I am not engaging the president in politics. My only goal is to engage the president in partnership,” Mr. Cuomo said in response to a question at his daily briefing on the COVID-19 outbreak in his state.
Mr. Cuomo described himself as a “tangler” and disputed the notion that he was shying away from a political brawl with Mr. Trump. But the governor tried to say it was time to put politics aside amid the fight against the coronavirus.
Mr. Cuomo pointed out that he thanked Mr. Trump and the federal government for the arrival on Monday of the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship that will free up about 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients at other hospitals.
“If you’re doing the right thing by New York, I’ll say it. If he’s doing the wrong thing by New York or the rest of the country, I’ll say it,” Mr. Cuomo said.
Earlier, the president had said part of the reason Mr. Cuomo is enjoying solid approval ratings is because of the help his state is getting from the federal government.
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“Now if he’s going to run, that’s fine. I wouldn’t mind running against Andrew,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “But I’ll be honest, I think [he’d] be a better candidate than Sleepy Joe. I wouldn’t mind running against Andrew. I don’t mind running against Joe Biden.”
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden has all but clinched the Democratic nomination, but he has been largely confined to his Wilmington, Delaware, home in recent weeks as the coronavirus has disrupted traditional political campaigning.
Mr. Cuomo said he wasn’t going to get into a political dispute and that he’s not running for president.
“I was never running for president — I said from day one I wasn’t running for president. I’m not running for president now,” the governor said. “I’m not playing politics — I just want partnership to deal with this.”
Mr. Trump on Sunday had also questioned the uptick in the use of protective masks in at least one unnamed hospital in New York, saying “something’s going on.”
“Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?” he said.
The governor said he didn’t want to hazard a guess as to what Mr. Trump might have been saying.
“If he wants to make an accusation, then let him make an accusation,” Mr. Cuomo said. “But I don’t know what he’s trying to say by inference.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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