Cuomo: Trump not a king, can't force states to reopen

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized President Donald Trump’s claim of “total” authority to reopen the nation’s virus-stalled economy, saying Tuesday he was talking more like a king than a president.

The Democratic governor criticized Trump’s assertion Monday that “when somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total.”

“His proclamation is that he would be king, that’s what a king is,” Cuomo said at his daily coronavirus briefing. “A king has total authority. That statement cannot stand.”

The Republican president made his comments after Cuomo and governors on both coasts announced multi-state compacts to coordinate reopening society amid the global pandemic.

New York has become an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with more than 200,000 confirmed cases. Cuomo said restarting the economy must be done in a smart, methodical manner or the hard-won gains of the past month could be quickly lost.

New Yorkers with COVID-19 continue to die at an unnerving pace even as the number of patients in hospitals level off. The 778 deaths recorded statewide Monday bring the total to 10,834 in about a month.

In a tweet Tuesday, Trump appeared to liken the governors to mutinous crew members in the movie “Munity on the Bounty.”

Cuomo said the president was “clearly unhappy.” But after taking aim at the president’s comments Tuesday in multiple TV appearances and during his state Capitol briefing, Cuomo said he would not engage in a fight with him.

“The president is clearly spoiling for a fight on this issue,” Cuomo said. “This is too important for anyone to play politics.”

Here are other developments in the coronavirus outbreak.

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MEDICAL CRUSH EASING

The total number of people hospitalized Monday was...