President Donald Trump criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo during an interview with Newsmax’s "Greg Kelly Reports," calling him “a bully thug” who badly mishandled the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
When asked about Cuomo’s new book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic," which was critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, Trump answered that the governor heads “probably the worst-run state in the country.”.
"He did a very poor job. And a very sad thing - thousands and thousands of people died unnecessarily. Number one in our nation," Trump said of the number of New Yorkers who have died from the coronavirus.
The state Health Department reports 25,606 residents have died from COVID-19, the highest number of any state in the country.
"And then he wrote a book. I guess it’s a negative book. I don’t know," Trump added. "Who the hell’s gonna read it? But I guess he wrote a book and it’s negative."
Trump noted that he provided New York a Navy medical ship and helped convert the Javits Center into an emergency hospital that at the height of the pandemic was not put to use.
"We gave him the hospital — we gave him the Javits Center — he could have put those patients in there, he never even used them," Trump said.
"We spent a lot of money helping him, and he’s very unappreciative. You know, he’s a thug and he’s very unappreciative. It’s one of those things," he said.
"People are leaving NY because of people like him. He’s a bully thug," Trump added.
Cuomo’s office responded to the claims.
"Give me a break — More than 216,000 Americans died because of the federal government’s incompetent and bumbling pandemic response," Cuomo senior adviser Richard Azzopardi said.
"And Trump knew the whole time how deadly it was and never raised the alarm. Instead he told the American people to drink bleach and then went golfing - a lot," he added.