5 highlights from DNC night 1: Biden can ‘restore the soul of America,’ Cuomo and Sanders declare
Cuomo: 'Joe Biden can restore the soul of America'
Among the more highly advertised speakers for the convention’s first night was New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In a five-minute speech, he wasted little time in criticizing the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and praised his own state’s response to the virus.
During his speech, Cuomo also claimed that Trump has only made America’s political division worse.
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“We know that our problems go beyond the COVID virus. COVID is the symptom, not the illness,” Cuomo said. “Our nation is in crisis. And in many ways, COVID is just a metaphor. A virus attacks when the body is weak and when it cannot defend itself. Over these past few years, America’s body politic has been weakened. The divisions have been growing deeper.
“The anti-Semitism, the anti-Latino, the anti-immigrant fervor, the racism in Charlottesville where the KKK didn’t even bother to wear their hoods, and in Minnesota where the life was squeezed from Mr. Floyd,” Cuomo added. “Only a strong body can fight off the virus, and America’s divisions weakened it. Donald Trump didn’t create the initial division. The division created Trump. He only made it worse.”
Cuomo went on to claim that the government is the “immune system” of America and argued that the Trump administration is “dysfunctional and incompetent.”
“It couldn’t fight off the virus. In fact, it didn’t even see it coming. The European virus infected the Northeast while the White House was still fixated on China,” Cuomo said, referring to a European strain of the coronavirus.
Cuomo went on to blame the Trump administration for the devastating impact the coronavirus had on New York, where there are reportedly as many as 32,000 people who died after contracting COVID-19.
Cuomo’s own response to the virus has been heavily criticized for forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients and his administration has been accused of drastically undercounting nursing home patients that have died from COVID-19.
The governor claimed that Americans have learned a “critical lesson” about how vulnerable the country becomes when “we are divided” and when our government “is incompetent.”
“Now, we need a leader as good as our people, a leader who appeals to the best within us, not the worst,” Cuomo said. “A leader who can unify, not divide. A leader who can bring us up, not tear us down. I know that man, I’ve worked with that man. I’ve seen his talent. I’ve seen his strength. I’ve seen his pain, and I’ve seen his hurt.”
“That man is Joe Biden. Joe Biden is what I call America tough, tough in the best way,” he added. “Tough that is smart, united, disciplined, and loving. Joe Biden can restore the soul of America. And that’s exactly what our country needs today.”
