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Specifically, the President’s antagonism comes at a crucial time for the governmental response to the virus, which has required a nationwide coordination among states as well as the federal government.
Despite marshaling his state’s resources, Cuomo is the latest governor to find himself the target of the President’s invective — but he’s not the first.
While visiting CDC headquarters in Atlanta last Friday with a more friendly governor, Republican Brian Kemp of Georgia, Trump called Washington Gov. Jay Inslee a “snake” and said he had warned Pence of working closely with the Democratic governor.
“I told him our work would be more successful if the Trump administration stuck to the science and told the truth,” Inslee tweeted.
Pence and Inslee appear to have maintained a good working relationship despite their different party identifications. The vice president visited Washington last week, where Inslee greeted him on the tarmac with a sanitary elbow-bump rather than the customary handshake. In public remarks, Pence and Inslee praised each other — a gesture that seems to have irked Trump.
“I told Mike not to be complimentary of that governor because that governor is a snake,” Trump said at the CDC. “Just let me tell you, we have a lot of problems with the governor and the governor of Washington, that’s where you have many of your problems, OK? So Mike may be happy with him but I’m not, OK?”
Trump’s characteristic bombast has not abated even at this precarious time for his presidency — and even with his reelection on the line.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association who joined Pence in person for last week’s videoconference, praised Pence Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” while taking a veiled shot at Trump.
“He’s a former governor,” Hogan said of Pence. “He knows the governors are on the front lines. And he is doing, I think, a good job of coordinating everybody and communicating with us.”
But Hogan, who has been a rare Republican voice to criticize the President in past years, mildly rebuked Trump for his “communication” throughout the outbreak.
“Has the President been perfect in his communication? I would say he hasn’t communicated the way I would and the way I might like him to,” Hogan said. “But I think the rest of the team has been doing a pretty good job.”
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