New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned President Donald Trump not to push reopening his state too early to an "absurd point," and said there would be a "constitutional crisis" if that happens.
"We would have a problem," the Democrat governor told NBC "Today" co-host Hoda Kotb on Tuesday morning. "If he thinks he's going to force this state, or any state for that matter, to do something that is reckless or irresponsible, that could endanger human life, literally, because we don't reopen correctly, you will see those virus numbers go up again, and more people will die."
Trump declared Monday he has "total" authority as president to order states to reopen for business, causing outcry from several sources that he is overstepping his Constitutional bounds.
Cuomo warned on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that if Trump orders states to reopen, "we will have a constitutional crisis like you haven't seen in decades...it would be terrible for this country, it would be terrible for this president. I just hope he gets control of what he was saying last night and he doesn't go down that road."
Cuomo appeared to have adopted a less aggressive approach by midday.
He told reporters that "the president is clearly spoiling for a fight on this issue,” but insisted that being politically divisive right now would be harmful.
“The president will have no fight with me,” Cuomo said. “I will not engage it.”
Cuomo also spoke out against Trump on several other morning shows, stressing that while New York's new coronavirus cases have reached a plateau, but the emergency is not over, as the cases are not yet declining.
“We don't have a king — we have a president, and that was a big decision," Cuomo told Kotb. "We ran away from having a king, and George Washington was president, not King Washington so the president doesn't have total authority. The Constitution is there, the 10th Amendment is there."
On CNN's “New Day," Cuomo said he'd refuse an order from Trump to reopen New York, if the order came in a way that would endanger the public health of people in his state.
Also appearing on "CBS This Morning," Cuomo said there are "months of re-entry" ahead and warned that it could be deadly if action is taken too quickly.
"You've seen countries re-open too aggressively," he said. "The virus came back, they had to close again. We don't want to make that mistake."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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