Andrew Cuomo Announces Working Group of Democrat Governors for ‘Smart’ Reopening

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo teamed up with blue state governors on Monday to set up a task force of experts to set the timing to reopen their economies during the coronavirus crisis.

“This is about being smart first,” he said. “Not political. Smart.”

The creation of the task force appears to jump ahead of President Donald Trump’s attempt to take charge of reopening the economy with a federal group of advisers and experts. Last week, the president said he would make an announcement of his group of advisers in the coming days.

Cuomo announced his task force during a conference call with the governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware ,and the media.

“Let’s be smart and let’s be cooperative and let’s learn from one another,” Cuomo said, noting that since each state in the region was interconnected, it was important that they work together.

Cuomo said that any other state was welcome to join his working group in the future.

The governors praised Cuomo’s leadership, expressing their willingness to work together to reopen their states.

Cuomo declared that states had to make their own decisions about closures, so it made sense that they should also have the authority to decide when to reopen their own states.

“If you want to change the management model, change the management model,” Cuomo said when asked about who had the authority to make decisions about reopening the economy. But he warned the federal government that if they wanted to take charge, they would need to explain it state by state.

Cuomo said that he had not had a conversation with the president about his plan, but admitted that Trump could overrule him.

“If the federal government comes and says that they are going to substitute a federal plan, well that would then trump a state plan,” he said. “Pardon the pun.”