On Cuomo Prime Time Monday night, Chris Cuomo took issue with President Donald Trump continuing to push for schools to reopen in the fall, even as cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. continue to rise, including among children, and testing lags dangerously behind. In states across the country, many people are waiting well over a week, and in some cases two weeks, to find out their test results, which all but renders the tests useless. National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García called pressure from the White House to reopen schools “appallingly reckless.”
“There’s no plan for better testing. I hear you all over this country saying you can’t get results fast enough. I know. There’s no plan for it to get better. There’s no plan to help us reopen schools. And there is a reason for this inaction, and it has a name: Trump,” Cuomo said, later adding, “You must call on him to tell the experts around him, make a plan to increase our testing efficiency. Do it smarter. Get us results faster. Seven, ten days doesn’t help anybody. Have them make a plan to help states open schools. That’s your damn job.”
Cuomo pointed to the fact that, despite having plans in place, the president’s national security advisor, Robert O’Brien, tested positive for the coronavirus shortly after returning from a business trip to Europe, during which he was photographed with other diplomats while not wearing a mask. Also, more than a dozen members of the Miami Marlins organization tested positive just days into the Major League Baseball season. Cuomo asked how we can expect to safely reopen schools when even some of the most protected in our society aren’t safe.
“The White House can’t contain the virus within its own walls. Major League Baseball can’t keep players from catching COVID instead of balls,” Cuomo said. “How can this president and his CDC still argue it’s safe enough to reopen schools in the fall with no plan?”
Cuomo also claimed that Trump can’t be trusted when it comes to reopening because, until recently, Trump refused to wear a mask in public, even mocking Joe Biden for wearing a mask. Cuomo even blamed the president for many of his supporters still refusing to do so.
“Trump said today he trusts all Americans to do the right things. His own national security advisor didn’t. And many others aren’t because of what he was selling them just before last week,” Cuomo said. “The person you must question trusting on this is Trump. You must be outraged by the inaction.”
And Cuomo warned viewers not to depend on the federal government to get us through the pandemic.
“You only control what you do for your family, what you can influence in your own community and what you can demand from local leaders,” Cuomo said. “I’m telling you, If you’re waiting for Trump to use the federal government, with all its power and influence, don’t, because it’s not happening.”
Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.
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