In a hastily-arranged conference call with reporters last night at 7:30, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo let loose on President Donald Trump for having started a process designed to pull federal funding from New York City, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Portland.
First reported as an exclusive by the New York Post, the White House subsequently released Trump’s five-page memo ordering all federal agencies to send reports to the White House Office of Management and Budget that detail funds that can be redirected away from those cities.
The memo refers to them as “anarchist jurisdictions.” The memo twice mentions New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio by name and Cuomo once.
While the memo specified New York, Washington, Seattle and Portland, they are not the only cities where there were recent protests of alleged racial injustice and alleged police brutality that were accompanied by violent incidents. The memo does not mention such other locations such as Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a demonstration was marked by two people being killed and a third injured allegedly by a Trump supporter.
However, the memo does instruct Attorney General William Barr to prepare a comprehensive list of what it called “anarchist” cities.
White House budget director Russ Vought was directed to issue guidance in 30 days “to the heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants.”
“First, from the point of view of New York City, this has been the worst president in history,” Cuomo said in the conference call. “President Ford said, ‘Drop dead.’ (Trump) has actively been trying to kill New York City ever since he’s been elected and it’s a personal animus as it normally is with the president.
“I think it’s because he is from New York City and New York City rejected him always,” Cuomo continued. “He was dismissed as a clown in New York City. Those who know him best like him least.”
The governor blasted Trump for already holding up funding for the Second Avenue subway expansion, the AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport and other New York City projects. He blamed Trump”™s negligence for allowing Covid-19 to run rampant in New York.
“He is the cause of Covid in New York,” Cuomo declared. “It is his negligence that brought it here and then his arrogance where he won’t provide state and local funding to help states and cities to recover from the pandemic that his negligence caused.”
Speaking in an even tone without shouting, Cuomo got personal: “Look, the best thing he did for New York City was leave. Good riddance, let him go to Florida, be careful not to get Covid.”
The governor said that if Trump wants to do something about public safety, he can address the approximately 1,000 daily deaths in the U.S. from Covid.
“Try doing your job,” Cuomo said. “You have the worst record on the globe in terms of leadership. You want to do something on public safety? That’s what you can do.
“He thinks he’s a king but he’s not. He’s a president,” the governor continued. “But there’s the Constitution and there are laws, nothing that he knows anything about. But the federal budget is appropriated by law with conditions of funding by law. The statutes contain the conditions and he can’t override the law.
“I suspect it’s more of a political statement that he’s making than anything else,” Cuomo added, “but it’s also illegal what he’s talking about.”
Thursday afternoon, New York State Attorney General Letitia James threatened legal action if Trump actually moves ahead and pulls federal funding.
“This is nothing more than a desperate, last ditch election strategy by a president too weak to lead us through these national crises,” James said. “Sowing anger and dividing Americans are the last thing we need, and if the president actually decides to move forward with his threat to defund New York City, we will be ready to take immediate legal action. The president is not a dictator and his efforts at tyrannical rule will be met with fierce opposition. Time after time, we have beat the president in court and we have no doubt we will beat him again, if necessary.”
CUOMO THREATENED THE LIFE OF A POTUS. REAL CLASSY MORON
both he and brother are a holes . he killed more people in nursing homes by his directive than anyonne!