During a Friday appearance on The View, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been “proactive.”
Newsom acknowledged he had dozens of lawsuits with the Trump administration. “… There’s no question we’ve had our differences of opinion on many issues,” he said.
But when it came to the coronavirus, the president was responsive to Newsom’s requests. “All I can say is that, from my perspective, the relationship has been strong,” the governor said. “I’m not doing it to kiss the ring—I’m just being forthright with the president. He returns calls, he reaches out, he’s been proactive.”
“We got that Mercy ship in down here in Los Angeles,” Newsom continued. “That was directly because he sent it down here—2,000 medical units came to the state of California … these field medical stations and that’s been very, very helpful.”
Joy Behar Asks If Newsom Felt Pressured to ‘Kiss The Ring’
Behar had asked if Newsom felt he had to support the president or fear retribution. “Governor, it’s no secret that you’ve had a combative relationship with Trump in the past, but lately, you’ve been praising him for the help he’s giving,” The View host said. “Of course, you have to, because look at how he treats governors who don’t kiss his ring.”
Host Sunny Hostin asked if the U.S. governors were working together instead of going through the Trump administration because “some are saying that some states are getting preferential treatment from the president.”
Newsom confirmed the governors had been collaborating and talking through the National Governors’ Association.
“Almost 36 million masks we’ve distributed in the state of California,” Newsom said. “We’ve received just over 1 million from the federal government. That’s not a cheap shot, that’s not fingerpointing. It’s just reality. So when you ask, are we going to rely on the federal government or are we going to rely on ourselves? We’re going to rely disproportionately on ourselves.”
California Slows the Rate of Coronavirus Infections
It’s not the first time Newsom had positive things to say about Trump. Newsom told CNN’s Jack Tapper that he’d be “lying” if he said the president wasn’t responsive to California. “And so, as a question, as a sort of an offer of objectivity, I have to acknowledge that publicly,” he said on Wednesday. “The fact is, every time I’ve called the president, he’s quickly gotten on the line.”
Both the president and Newsom have talked positively about each other this week. Trump praised Newsom during a press briefing on Tuesday after the rates of infection in California started to slow. California was one of the states that started to implement social distancing early.
“They’ve done a good job, California. Now let’s see what happens, because we could see a spike,” Trump said. “I mean you don’t know. They could have a spike where all of a sudden it spikes upward.”
As of Friday, the number of coronavirus cases eclipsed 258,000, with more than 6,600 deaths, the New York Times reported.
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