Cuomo welcomes Biden administration, change in ‘tone’ from Washington
ALBANY — A day after threatening to sue the federal government if New York receives less than $15 billion in COVID aid, a hopeful Gov. Cuomo said he welcomes a change of tone from Washington following the inauguration of President Biden.
“It’s like ‘Day 1’ because we start with a new president,” the governor said during a remote briefing from the State Capitol hours after Biden was sworn in. “I’m very excited about the president and the changes for this nation.”
Relishing his first chance to refer to Donald Trump as the former president, Cuomo expressed optimism that a change of tone from the White House will serve the nation well.
“The president sets the tone, you know, the President is not just another person on Twitter, normally,” he said. “People look to the president, people listen to the president, the president is a leader, is a tone-setter.
“And when he is strong enough to use words like ‘love,’ like ‘healing,’ that’s a special person because it’s hard to show your soul that way, it’s hard to be that, honest, and that authentic, and that’s who Joe Biden is,” he added.
The remarks were a change of tone for the governor as well after he used his budget proposal presentation a day earlier to lambaste the federal response to the COVID crisis under Trump and argue that New York is owed billions in aid.
Cuomo, who chose not to go to the inauguration due to potential threats against state capitals such as Albany posed by Trump supporters, joked that he easily could have attended the ceremony after protests failed to materialize.
“The demonstration in New York was, I think it’s fair to say, less robust than anticipated,” he said, noting that only one solitary protester was spotted outside the Capitol earlier in the day.
State police have increased security and closed off some streets around the building in recent days after the FBI warned of potentially armed protests in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a group of Trump loyalists.
