Coronavirus: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo To Defy Trump's Order To Reopen Country

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will not hesitate defying Donald Trump if the latter forces him to reopen the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, Trump revealed that the White House was “very close” to finalizing its plan to reopen the country to salvage its collapsing economy.

Measures implemented to curtail the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. have taken a toll on the country’s economy, leading to huge stock market losses and massive unemployment. To address the crisis, Trump said people should get back to work soon. The U.S. president also said on Twitter that he has “the ultimate authority” to reopen the country, suggesting that state governors could not defy his presidential order.

On Tuesday, however, Andrew Cuomo said he has no plans to follow Trump. “I wouldn’t do it,” he said. “We would have a constitutional challenge between the state and federal government and that would go to the courts,” he added.

Cuomo also argued that Trump isn’t king, saying his authority is not total when it comes to reopening the country. According to him, the argument between federal and state powers was already had as early as in the days of the Founding Fathers, and when it comes to public health, state governors call the shots.

In a 2014 report by the Congressional Research Service, it states that states have the authority over their public health. “Thus, state and local governments have the primary authority to control the spread of dangerous diseases within their jurisdictions, and the federal government has authority to quarantine and impose other health measures to prevent the spread of diseases from foreign countries and between states,” the report states.

New York has seen 10,000 deaths since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S. The state currently has at least 195,000 cases, the most number of cases in the U.S.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Cuomo said Trump’s involvement in reopening the U.S. to the state level is only limited to him giving advice to state governors. He also warned the president against lifting the lockdown, urging him to set politics aside as the country grapples with the pandemic. “The president is clearly spoiling for a fight on this issue,” he said. “We could lose all the progress we made in one week if we do it wrong.”