CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview With New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

Interview

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CABRERA: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo joins us now.

Governor, I know how busy you are. Thank you for taking time.

What's your reaction to what you just heard? ANDREW CUOMO, (D), NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Good to be with you.

Well, Ana, as far as the quarantine, which means a lot of different things now in this environment, but that's where we are, that's what we're doing.

We started a mandatory isolation. You stay home unless you're an essential worker. We're doing that. That makes sense, makes sense for our state and other states, neighboring states, Connecticut, New Jersey, which the president mentioned are doing the same thing. So that policy I think makes sense.

I don't know what enforced quarantine means, but that's what we're doing already.

CABRERA: Do you have any problem with the idea of there being travel restrictions? Essentially what I heard from the president is perhaps New Yorkers couldn't leave the state.

CUOMO: Well, that's not a quarantine. That would be a lockdown. If you said we're geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown. Then we would be Wuhan, China. And that wouldn't make sense.

This is a time the president says he is trying to restart the economy. New York is the financial sector. You geographically restrict a state, you would paralyze the financial sector. You think the Dow Jones, the stock market has gone down, it would drop like a stone.

I don't even believe it is legal. Interesting, Commerce Clause, et cetera. I think it would be exactly opposite everything the president is talking about. How would you ever operationally stop goods from coming to New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and food and trucks, et cetera. So I can't believe he's considering that.

Also --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: What if that is what he wants. What if he wants a lockdown? Would you sue to stop him? You said you don't think it is legal.

CUOMO: Look, a lockdown is what they did in Wuhan, China, and we're not in China, and we're not in Wuhan. I don't believe it would be legal. I believe it would be legal. I believe it would be illegal.

[17:35:03]

I don't believe you can say you cannot leave the state of New York or state of New Jersey or state of California. If you wanted to start to do that, that would ripple across the country.

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut today, tomorrow New Orleans, then Detroit, Texas, then Florida, then California. At the same time, we say we try to restart the economy.

I mean, I can't remember in history when it was done. You would have to go back to the Civil War to talk about borders of states like that. I think it would paralyze the economy. I think it would shock the economic markets in a way we've never seen before.

As a governor, I'm not going to close off my borders. Trucks have to come in, food has to come in, mail has to come in. I'm not going to put health and safety of my people at risk.

And it is not what the president has been trying to achieve. He's worked very hard to be working with the governors, he's worked very hard to be working with the state of New York. I spoke to him this morning. We have a good cooperative relationship.

So it would be exactly opposite everything he has said and everything he has done to date and it will be totally counterproductive.

CABRERA: Have you talked to him this afternoon since he made those remarks?

CUOMO: No. I literally spoke to him just a few minutes before. We had a good conversation. We talked about additional aid for the state of New York in terms of temporary hospital beds. We talked about the medical ship that's coming to New York. He never mentioned anything about a quarantine.

CABRERA: I mean, how would this even work? Would he send in the military to guard bridges and tunnels going in and out of, for example, New York City, if it is just the city that's locked down?

CUOMO: It couldn't work. It would be the pictures you saw on TV with Wuhan province in China. I don't even know how you could possibly do it. We need goods coming in and out of New York. We need food and mail coming in.

CABRERA: On that point you made about the financial sector, about being able to have interstate commerce, and also the financial sectors, it is the heart of Manhattan, right? What would this mean for the stock market? Would it have to shut down?

CUOMO: Oh, it would drop like a stone. I mean, I don't know if it would operationally have to shut down, but it may as well shut down.

You say you can't come to New York to do business. Businesspeople can't leave New York to go to Chicago for a meeting. I mean, it would be chaos and mayhem. And that would drop this economy in a way I think that wouldn't recover for months, if not years. So it is totally opposite everything he has been saying.

I don't even think it is plausible. I don't think it is legal. And it would really be total mayhem. I don't have another word for it.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: The New York Stock Exchange specifically -- I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. There's a slight delay with our signal here. I was thinking about the New York Stock Exchange. Obviously, if it is

again, a little vague now about the quarantine that he's speaking of, but one point he mentioned New York City. I imagine there are a lot of people that go in and out of New York City that don't live in the city, might be part of the New York Stock Exchange.

That's where I was thinking about an impact when it comes to the stock market, right?

CUOMO: Oh, no, you're exactly right, Ana. There are people that come in and out all day long dealing with the stock exchange. There are meetings, I mean, thousands of people coming in and out that are directly related to the stock exchange.

And I know the president is concerned what happened to the stock market, we all are, I am as governor of New York, every person that has a retirement fund, watched the drop is concerned. So why you would want to just create total pandemonium on top of a pandemic I have no idea.

CABRERA: Well, if you think about the actions you took, right, when it came to New Rochelle, you put in a zone that was somewhat restrictive, and you did that in order to stop the spread. If there isn't some kind of lockdown, how do you get it under control? How do you prevent the spread from getting worse?

[17:40:02]

CUOMO: We had the hottest cluster, if you will, the hottest hot spot in the United States of America, with New Rochelle, Westchester. We did something with the containment zone, closed school and no large gatherings. We never said you can't come and go. We've never confined people's mobility, imprisoned people in a geographic area, even in New Rochelle.

We called it a containment zone which was not the best word. It was to contain the virus, not people. We never contained anyone. I can't remember the last time this country said we're going to contain you in an area. Again, that's why I think I don't even believe it is legal.

Also you have provisions, states' rights, interstate commerce, et cetera. So it's a preposterous idea frankly. And again, it is totally opposite what the president wants to do, which is work with the states, help the states, get the economy running, and bring some sense of stability.

You wouldn't at this point, literally, fracture the entire nation. It is Louisiana, New Orleans. You'll see the numbers continually going up. Every few days, it is going to be another hot spot. That's where we are.

And if you start walling off areas across the country, it would be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, anti-social, it wouldn't even be productive.

This virus, you don't know who has it. We have done more testing in New York than any other state. That's why we know better who has it in New York. Once the other areas start to have the right tests and the volume of tests, you're going to see it is all across the country.

CABRERA: Governor, will you call the president tonight and speak with him about this?

CUOMO: Look, if the president was considering this, I guarantee he would have called me. I mean, we talk about relatively trivial matters when it comes to dealing with this situation. This is a civil war kind of -- this is civil war kind of discussion.

CABRERA: So you don't believe he really is serious about it?

CUOMO: I don't believe that he could be serious, that any federal administration could be serious about a physical lockdown of states or parts of states across this country. I don't believe it is legal. I think it would be economic chaos. I don't think the American people would stand for it.

It's just a question of time before you see the numbers growing in hot spots across the nation. So I think it makes absolutely no sense. And I don't believe any serious governmental personality or professional would support it.

CABRERA: There are growing concerns, though, we're hearing not just from the president but from governors in other states about travelers coming into their states from New York. There are reports that the governor of Rhode Island ordered all vehicles with New York State license plates be stopped when entering that state. What's your reaction to that?

CUOMO: Yes, I think that's a reactionary policy. I am concerned about people with the virus coming to my state, right? That's a reactionary policy and I don't think that's legal.

We're talking to Rhode Island now. If they don't roll back that policy, I'm going to sue Rhode Island because that clearly is unconstitutional. I understand the goal. And I could set up my borders and say I'm not letting anyone in until they take a test to see whether or not they have the virus.

But there's a point of absurdity. And I think what Rhode Island did is at the point of absurdity. Again, it is not legal.

They're a neighboring state. I'm sure we'll be able to work it out. But I think we need balance in this.

I understand people are nervous, anxious. It is a frightening situation. But we have to keep it in focus. We have to keep the ideas and policies we implement positive rather than reactionary and emotional.

CABRERA: If you think that these actions are illegal, what are you prepared to do? Would you sue Rhode Island? Would you sue the federal government? What happens?

[17:44:59]

CUOMO: Well, I've sued the federal government many times, by the way, over the past few years, we've had quite a number of policy decisions. I do not believe it's going to come to that on this.

Again, I have been speaking to the president. This would be a declaration of war on states, a federal declaration of war, and wouldn't just be New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, next week, it would be Louisiana with New Orleans, and week after that Detroit, Michigan, and it would run across the nation.

I don't think the president is looking to start a lot of wars with states about now for a lot of reasons.

With Rhode Island, they're a neighboring state. I think what they did was wrong. It was reactionary, illegal. But we'll work it out amicably, I'm sure. We have conversations going back and forth.

No state should be using police to prohibit interstate travel in any way. No state should be able to say, you know, I'm going to use my police to make sure you don't come in with a license plate.

By the way, you're in Rhode Island. What if you travel to New York, you travel back to Rhode Island? Do you get stopped? You can't re- enter Rhode Island? You know, how many people from Rhode Island come here to do business? We have to be smart in these policies.

CABRERA: I want to ask about the situation in New York. Stories we are hearing from hospital workers are not good. We see lines outside places like Elmhurst. What's the status when it comes to ventilators in New York State? That's been one of the big issues of concern for you.

CUOMO: Well, the ventilators, which, by the way, before this situation, nobody really gave a second thought to ventilators.

What has happened, one of the peculiar situations with this disease is a respiratory disease, effects the lungs badly. People that are acutely ill with the virus all need a ventilator, and they're on these much longer than most people are on ventilators with other diseases.

So you have more people needing ventilators, and they're on them longer, which increases the need for the ventilators.

And everybody is trying to get ventilators. You have 50 states bidding against each other for ventilators. You have 50 states competing with the federal government to buy ventilators. You have countries around the world trying to get ventilators. So we're trying to do the best we can. We're acquiring as many as we can.

There's a new technology we're using that splits, call it splitting, one ventilator can do two people. We are implementing that procedure across the state.

And we're doing the best we can to move people that need the ventilators to places that have the ventilators. But that's one of the great logistical problems with this entire situation.

The problem is you want to flatten that curve so you don't overwhelm the hospital system. The hospital system, it is beds, it's staff, then it is equipment, and at the top of the equipment list are the ventilators.

CABRERA: What's the latest on the fatality rate in your state?

CUOMO: You know, it dropped today. It is still going. The overall line is still up. Today was a drop. We're not sure if it is a one-day drop. Tested 17,000 people overnight, 7,000 hospitalizations. But we still see it going up.

The possible apex by numerical projections has us needing 140,000 hospital beds and about 40,000 ventilators, which is a very big number that would overwhelm the health care system.

So we're trying to get down the curve, get down the spread of infections, and at the same time, ramp up that hospital capacity, god forbid, that actually happens.

And we're getting very creative in doing that. We're opening temporary hospitals in locations across the state. So we are doing everything we can to increase the hospital capacity and flatten the curve at the same time.

CABRERA: I hear what you're saying about reaction in terms of providing space, having resources to deal with influx and rush of more and more patients. You were completely against a federal lockdown. How do you get it under control?

CUOMO: You get it under control the way we're operating. Look there are not a lot of options. Reduce the spread. Quote/unquote, "flatten the curve." That is what they all talk about.

We've taken every action you can take there. Nobody can go to work except essential workers. Reduce density, close the restaurants, close the gyms. No gatherings. So you reduce the spread. You increase the hospital capacity.

[17:50:08]

You test, test, test. We're doing more test than any state in the United States. More per capita than China or South Korea. So you isolate the positive. And part of it is it runs its course.

All you are hoping is that you slowdown that spread of infection. You drop that curve to a level that you can treat in the hospitals. And that's what we're doing. We're anticipating an apex of that curve, the high point to be anywhere from 14 to 21 days.

That is really the essential moment for us when you get to ha high point. And they say that is 14 to 21 days. With any luck at all after that high point the number of cases start to drop.

CABRERA: Governor Andrew Cuomo, thank you very much. You have taken a lot of time. Thank you for the conversation. Wishing you lots of luck. Be well.

CUOMO: Thank you. Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: Thank you.

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