Andrew Cuomo slam dunks Donald Trump over nonsensical New York quarantine threat
Earlier today, Donald Trump floated the idea of placing parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut under quarantine. Even though legal experts have confirmed that Trump literally can’t do this because the National Guard in each state answers to the Governor, TV news networks spent the afternoon largely presenting the empty threat as if it were a real one.
Now, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is striking back. He’s confirming that any such attempt on Donald Trump’s part would cause “chaos and mayhem” and wouldn’t even be legal. This matters, because Cuomo and the Governors of the surrounding states have complete control over any decision about quarantines, and Trump has literally zero power. He can’t give an order to the National Guard in defiance of the Governor, and the National Guard can’t follow it.
It’s not difficult to figure out why Donald Trump is making this empty threat. First, it helps out his pal Ron DeSantis, the corrupt Republican Governor of Florida, who is now trying to scapegoat New Yorkers for his own criminally negligent handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Second, because the media eagerly took the bait and ran with the ratings-friendly narrative that Trump is somehow magically going to invoke a quarantine, it means the media isn’t spending the day covering Trump’s deranged and deadly handling of the crisis. In reality Trump can no more quarantine New York than he can make it rain tomorrow.
