President Donald Trump took fresh aim Friday at New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, mocking him for saying earlier this week that “America was never that great.”
“How does a politician, Cuomo, known for pushing people and businesses out of his state, not to mention having the highest taxes in the U.S., survive making the statement, WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, IT WAS NEVER THAT GREAT? Which section of the sentence is worse?” Trump wrote on Twitter.
A couple of hours later, Trump returned to the same subject on Twitter, calling Cuomo’s comments “really dumb” and saying it “could be a career threatening statement” and “there doesn’t seem to be much reason to ever vote for him.” Cuomo is seeking reelection in the fall.
Trump was referring to comments by Cuomo at a bill-signing ceremony in New York on Wednesday that were aimed at Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
“We’re not going to make America great again; it was never that great,” Cuomo said, drawing audible gasps and some applause. “We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.”
Cuomo’s office later sought to clarify his intent, with a spokesman saying the governor “believes America is great and that her full greatness will be fully realized when every man, woman and child has full equality.”
Later that night, Trump took to Twitter and accused Cuomo of having a “total meltdown.”
Cuomo responded to the Republican president, writing: “What you say would be ‘great again’ would not be great at all … We will not go back to discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK.”
Conservative commentators have continued to seize on Cuomo’s remarks from Wednesday. The episode was discussed Friday morning on Fox & Friends on Fox News, a show frequently watched by the president.
Hours after Trump’s latest tweets, Cuomo told reporters in a phone call that he thinks Trump is taking the country to “the antithesis of American greatness.”
“He wants to go back to before Roe v. Wade,” Cuomo said. “He wants to go back to before there was environmental protection. Back to before there were workers’ rights. Back before there was marriage equality. Back before all these new immigrants started to come to this country. His philosophy is not just repugnant to New York, his philosophy is anti-American. His vision of America isn’t great at all.”