Biden, Harris Skipping Weekly COVID Calls With Governors, Leaving Cuomo in Charge
Cuomo, the man under investigation for nursing home deaths and sexual harassment, is in charge of weekly COVID calls with other governors.
Governors have become frustrated because President Joe Biden has not attended a single weekly COVID briefing. Vice President Kamala Harris has only attended one so far.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, of all people, has taken charge of the briefings.
From RealClearPolitics:
Every Tuesday, usually at 11 a.m. EST, all 50 governors dial in to the same conference call to coordinate federal and state responses to the coronavirus crisis. And until this past January, they heard each time from the vice president. Mike Pence, as head of the White House COVID task force, led those weekly discussions. Donald Trump dropped by from time to time. The calls continue under the current administration but without Biden. “It’s been a real frustration, I think it’s safe to say, for all 50 governors,” New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu told RealClearPolitics.
Of course, he appreciates hearing from Jeffrey Zients (pictured), the new White House COVID response coordinator, and from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser. But Sununu told RCP, “It would go a long way if the president would just get on the phone, or the vice president would get on the phone and take questions. Allow us to ask the folks in charge questions.”
Trump’s administration had 40 conference calls with the governors. Trump took part in eight and “Pence led 39 of them.”
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said Harris stayed on the line for only five minutes during her one call. She did not take any questions from the governors.
So Cuomo, the man under investigation for nursing home deaths and sexual harassment, leads the calls now:
Andrew Cuomo now leads the calls as chairman of the National Governors Association. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained that the New York governor was put in charge instead of the vice president because a change was needed. One of the reasons, Psaki told reporters in March, “is that there were operational aspects of the way the last administration approached COVID and approached the distribution of vaccines or approached planning and engagement with governors that wasn’t working.”
The new approach was also required, a White House official told RCP, because the pandemic response has changed dramatically from the early days when little was known about the virus to now, when half of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
And the COVID calls changed, the official added, only after the White House sought input from the states: “We took the feedback from governors in the prior administration that they wanted to have strong, regular, and coordinated response efforts with the federal government, and we’ve been focused on it.”
The change disappoints Ricketts the calls are “not the type of bipartisan partnership that the president promised when he came into office in his inaugural address.”
Other governors told RCP the lack of communication leaves them frustrated because they do not know “how to spend the money allocated in the American Rescue Plan” and the “vaccine distribution schedule.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
And Kamala’s in charge of the border. Is there a pattern here?
Those abused NY women had better step up their game, fast.
Racist agitprop keeps Kamel busy and napping keeps Joe from getting grumpy. Priorities, priorities.
Kamala Harris has three games: either she’s laughing as a desperate attempt to get poeple laughing (to distract them from realizing she has nothing intelligent to say). Or, she acts like a bitch with scripted retorts, to intimindate . Or,s he stares into the headlights like a deer about to get run over.
There is nothing else.
“Andrew Cuomo now leads the calls as chairman of the National Governors Association.”
Sounds like the other governors voted Cuomo in charge. This tells me that a majority of the members of the National Governors Association are feckless imbeciles who don’t care about serving their states or their country.
Kind of like Iran being in charge of womens’ rights.
Pakistan specifically said Cuomo was put in charge because change was needed…
To me, that sounds like he was appointed to run the calls.
Psaki specifically said Cuomo was put in charge because change was needed…
To me, that sounds like he was appointed to run the calls.
Nothing like having the inmates running the asylum! I guess that now that they are chipping the country via the vaccines, Cuomo feels his oats and actually thinks that American citizens give a tinker’s damn about him. He would be wrong!
Maybe the LuvGuv would be much better mindful of his time by watching Petey crawl out of the SUV and hop on his waiting bike to show his buy in on the Gween Dew Kneel!
They chopped Cumo down a few notches, got consessions out of him, now they’re re-habbing him.
What scummy people are running our country. It boggles the mind. But then, we relied on the Crying Boehners as our bulwark against tyranny.
Cuomo is yet another Socialist Beacon of Sleaze!
What could possibly go wrong with this clueless clown Cuomo in charge?
So, the rest of the governors are trying to learn the best way to kill the old people…
If this were a movie – it would not be believable.
I wonder if he started the meetings off with a nice Italian kiss
The irony of this is the Dems/Progs can do this with a straight face, and can’t understand why Fredo’s bro, the Senior Citizen killer should’ve be a leader.
,-la can’t attend. She’s doing a book signing at the Mexican border.
Not surprised: the admin are not exactly strong supporters of federalism.
Leaving Cuomo in charge of COVID response is analogous to leaving Joe in charge of daycare.
Bang, there goes another keyboard. 50 Governors don’t know how to spend money? It’s all just sitting there, for lack of “guidance”? You have got to be kidding me.
To be fair, 11AM is when “The Price is Right” re-runs are on. Can’t expect Joe to miss that.
The man from Planned Parent/hood leads.