Friday on ABC’s “The View” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) praised President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response as “proactive” after co-host Joy Behar questioned if he is kissing the president’s ring to avoid retaliation for criticism.
Behar asked, “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. Of course, you have to, because look at how he treats governors who don’t kiss his ring. The governor of Washington, the governor of Michigan, he said they were not appreciative and told Mike Pence, ‘don’t call them back.’ Do you feel like you have to feed this guy’s ego to get the respirators, to get the PPEs, is that what’s going on?”
Newsom said, “Let me just acknowledge the frame of your question. We’re involved in over 48 lawsuits with the Trump administration. So there’s no question we have had our differences of opinion on many issues, but I want to remind you that you and many others that maybe are not aware of this. We have been at this since late January. California got a head start in many respects, where no one was really paying much attention. We started working with the administration directly to get these repatriated flights from mainland China into the state of California. Many states turned their back on those flights and those missions. California embraced them. We also had that Grand Princess, that large cruise ship where we worked very collaboratively with the federal government and built strong relationships of trust with emergency planning and how we can bring those passengers back into our diverse communities and all across the rest of the country.”
He continued, “As a consequence of that, our relationship began earlier than most. So from that perspective, all I can say is that, from my perspective, the relationship has been strong. I’m not doing it to kiss the ring. I’m not doing it in a way, you know, — I’m just being forthright with the president. He returns calls. He reaches out. He’s been proactive.”
Newsom added, “We got that Mercy ship down here in Los Angeles. That was directly because he sent it down here. Two thousand medical units came to the state of California, these FMS, these field medical stations. That’s been very, very helpful, and to the extent, we’re going to need more, and I’ll let you know in a few weeks if that relationship continues.”
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