Trump Pushes Back on Cuomo’s Claim That Administration Is Sending ‘Mixed Messages’ on Coronavirus

President Trump on Monday criticized New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for knocking the federal government’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

“I’m battling against, frankly, the mixed messages from the federal government,” Cuomo said in a Saturday appearance on MSNBC. “You have the president saying, ‘anybody who wants a test, you can have a test, it’s beautiful.’ You have the Vice President saying, ‘we can’t do the tests, we don’t have the capacity’ . . . Those kinds of mixed messages, that confusion, I think adds to the fear and the frustration of people because if [the] government doesn’t know what it’s doing, then people feel they’re really alone and this is really a problem.”

“There are no mixed messages,” Trump responded on Twitter early Monday morning, “only political weaponization by people like you and your brother, Fredo!” Trump was referring to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who in August 2019 lashed out at a man for calling him “Fredo” after a character from the Godfather movie.

On Friday, Trump took aim at Washington State governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, after Vice President Mike Pence had praised the governor’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in the state.

“I told Mike not to be complimentary to the governor, because that governor is a snake,” Trump said at a press conference. “I said, ‘if you’re nice to him he will take advantage.'”

There are over 100 cases of Wuhan coronavirus in Washington, mostly in the Seattle area, where 19 people have died.