This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/donald-trump-coronavirus-politics-andrew-cuomo-gretchen-whitmer

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Trump says 'keep politics out' of coronavirus then picks fight with Democrats Trump says 'keep politics out' of coronavirus then picks fight with Democrats
(about 3 hours later)
President lashes out at Andrew Cuomo and Gretchen Whitmer while referring to Covid-19 as ‘the Chinese virus’President lashes out at Andrew Cuomo and Gretchen Whitmer while referring to Covid-19 as ‘the Chinese virus’
Donald Trump has picked fights with two Democratic state governors while calling for them to “keep politics out” of the battle against what he called “the Chinese virus”. Donald Trump picked fights with Democrats on Tuesday even as he called for them to “keep politics out” of the battle against what he called, in a return to nationalist rhetoric, “the Chinese virus”.
The US president wielded his favourite cudgel, Twitter, to go after Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. This was despite Trump urging national unity in recent days and even softening his tone towards the media. As the White House prepares a massive stimulus package to counter the effect of the Covid-19 outbreak, the president gave an upbeat assessment of the economy, seen as critical to his political future, promising it would “pop” again soon.
Reverting to type, he tweeted on Tuesday: “Cuomo wants ‘all states to be treated the same.’ But all states aren’t the same. Some are being hit hard by the Chinese Virus, some are being hit practically not at all. New York is a very big ‘hotspot’, West Virginia has, thus far, zero cases.” “We’re going to win,” he vowed.
But Trump then added: “Andrew, keep politics out of it … ” That this crisis is taking place in an election year is impossible to ignore.
It was the continuation of an online spat between the Republican president and Democratic governor that began on Monday. New York is the state where Trump was born and built his fortune and is now among the worst affected by the virus. “I watched the debate – not too exciting,” Trump said of last Sunday’s meeting between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. “But what they said about me – and we’ve done a great job – when you talk about not being bipartisan, what they said about me.”
But at a press conference in Albany, New York, Cuomo struck a conciliatory tone, saying he had spoken to Trump this morning and found him “ready, willing and able to help”. He accused the Obama administration, in which Biden was vice-president, of making “terrible” and “horrific” mistakes in handling a swine flu outbreak in 2009.
Cuomo told reporters: “I said to the president, who is a New Yorker, who I’ve known for many, many years, ‘I put my hand out in partnership. I want to work together 100%. I want your help. I need your help.’ “Seventeen thousand people died,” Trump told reporters at a coronavirus task force briefing. In fact the official death toll in the US was 12,469.
“They shouldn’t be criticising because we’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump added, before airing a familiar grievance.
“The only thing we haven’t done well is to get good press. We’ve done a fantastic job but it hasn’t been appreciated.
“Even the closing down of the borders, which had never been done, and not only did we close them but we closed them early. The press doesn’t like writing about it. So we’ve done a poor job on press relationships and I guess I don’t know who to blame for that. I don’t know, maybe I can blame ourselves for that. I will blame ourselves.”
In a rare Oval Office address last week, Trump urged unity. But almost every day since he has attacked Obama, Biden or Democratic governors. He began Tuesday by going after governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
He tweeted: “Cuomo wants ‘all states to be treated the same.’ But all states aren’t the same. Some are being hit hard by the Chinese Virus, some are being hit practically not at all. New York is a very big ‘hotspot’, West Virginia has, thus far, zero cases.”
Trump added: “Andrew, keep politics out of it … ”
New York is now among the worst affected by the coronavirus. But at a press conference in Albany, Cuomo struck a conciliatory tone: “I said to the president, who is a New Yorker … ‘I put my hand out in partnership. I want to work together 100%. I want your help. I need your help.
“I think the president was 100% sincere in saying he wanted to work together in partnership, in a spirt of cooperation. The actions he has taken evidence that. His team are on it.”“I think the president was 100% sincere in saying he wanted to work together in partnership, in a spirt of cooperation. The actions he has taken evidence that. His team are on it.”
The governor added: “We’re not Democrats, we’re not Republicans, we are Americans at the end of the day. That’s who we are. That’s who we are when we’re at our best.” Trump also attacked Whitmer, seen as a potential running mate for Biden.
There is no time for “hypersensitivity” about politics, Cuomo added. “The president is doing the right thing in offering to step up for New York and I appreciate it, and New York will do the right thing in return.” “Failing Michigan governor must work harder and be much more proactive,” he wrote. “We are pushing her to get the job done. I stand with Michigan!”
But Trump had also attacked Whitmer, the Michigan governor seen as a potential running mate for Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, who has said he will choose a woman as his vice-presidential nominee. Whitmer shot back, seeking “swift and clear guidance, tests, personal protective equipment, and resources”. She went on to list measures taken in her state, a key election battleground.
“Failing Michigan governor must work harder and be much more proactive,” the president wrote, not mentioning Whitmer by name. “We are pushing her to get the job done. I stand with Michigan!” At the White House, Trump insisted: “I only do that when I have to respond. I watched her [Whitmer] on television. She said something that was false and therefore I did do that and I will continue to do that.
Whitmer shot back via Twitter: “Now that I’ve got your attention, Mr President – attack tweets won’t solve this crisis. But swift and clear guidance, tests, personal protective equipment, and resources would.” “If they’re not going to play fair, because you know, they have the media on their side. I don’t. I just have me. And if they’re not going to play fair, I’m going to do that. If they are going to play fair, there’s going to be nobody better than Donald Trump in terms of bipartisanship.”
She went on to list all the measures taken so far by the state, which remains a key battleground in the November presidential election. Trump also faced criticism for his use of the phrase “Chinese virus”. Congressman Ted Lieu tweeted: “There’s a difference between saying a virus came from China versus calling it a Chinese virus. Asian Americans have already been assaulted because of this type of rhetoric.”
There has been previous criticism of Trump and Republicans for using xenophobic dog whistles such as “foreign virus” and “Wuhan virus”. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, used the term “Chinese Coronavirus” in a tweet on 9 March. Asked by the Guardian if he intended to continue using the phrase, Trump replied: “China was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave this to them. That was false and rather than having an argument I said I have to call it where it came from. It did come from China so I think it’s a very accurate term.”
In a Twitter thread more than a month ago, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the 2019 novel strain of the coronavirus had an official name, Covid-19, and warned: “Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing.” More than a month ago, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the novel strain of the coronavirus had an official name, Covid-19, which should “prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing”.
On Tuesday Weijia Jiang, White House correspondent of CBS News, tweeted: “This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the ‘Kung-Flu’ to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.” A robust economy had been seen as Trump’s strongest suit for re-election. Now he faces recession. Airlines are said to face a bigger crisis than after 9/11.
Trump has claimed credit for banning travel from China early in the crisis but faced condemnation for downplaying the threat and not moving faster to introduce widespread testing. However, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, suggests the president should not be blamed. Trump insisted: “If we do this right, our country can be rolling again pretty quickly. We have to fight that invisible enemy. I guess, unknown – but we’re getting to know it a lot better.”
Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, which introduced new guidelines for the public on Monday, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that “a technical glitch” slowed down the distribution of coronavirus tests. He added: “The best thing we can do is get rid of the virus. Once that’s gone, it’s going to pop back like nobody’s ever seen before, that’s my opinion … I think our economy will come back really rapidly. One day we’ll be standing possibly up here, we’ll say, ‘Well, we won.’ Sure as you’re sitting here, we’re going to say that. We’re going to win.”
He added: “The regulatory constraints, which under certain circumstances are helpful and protective of the American people were not suited to the emergence of this particular outbreak. So there was a confluence of a bunch of things.” Trump has claimed credit for banning travel from China early on but faced condemnation for not moving faster on widespread testing. Despite a long list of public statements in which he downplayed the threat, on Tuesday he made a startling claim: “I’ve always known this is a real – this is a pandemic.
Hewitt asked: “Was the glitch or anything about the production of the test President Trump’s fault? Or actually, let me put it more broadly, would every president have run into the same problem?” “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
Fauci replied: “Oh, absolutely. This has nothing to do with anybody’s fault, certainly not the president’s fault.”