New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) (Wikipedia/Diana Robinson)
President Donald Trump lambasted Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday night after the New York governor took a jab at Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
“It was never that great,” Cuomo said of the U.S. at a bill-signing event in New York City.
Trump fired back at the prospective 2020 Democratic presidential candidate on Twitter.
“‘WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, IT WAS NEVER THAT GREAT,'” Trump wrote. “Can you believe this is the Governor of the Highest Taxed State in the U.S., Andrew Cuomo, having a total meltdown!”
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Cuomo drew both laughs and gasps with his remarks on Wednesday. The governor insisted that gender-based discrimination must end in order for the country to become great.
“We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged,” he said. “We will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of the population, is gone, and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed.”
Cuomo is seeking re-election for a third term this November. The New York Democratic primary for governor is scheduled for Sept. 13.
Several prominent Republicans criticized Cuomo for his comments, as did Trump’s campaign, which issued a statement saying: the governor “showed his true, pessimistic colors when he defamed America as a country that was ‘never that great.’”
Cuomo then appeared to start a Twitter feud with Trump after he tweeted on Wednesday night:
“What you say would be ‘great again’ would not be great at all.”
The governor continued: “We will not go back to discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK,” Cuomo wrote, adding, “Like NY’s motto says: Excelsior — Ever Upward (not backward).
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Cuomo also announced in a separate tweet that the bill he signed was one that made sex trafficking a felony in the state of New York.
During a speech in Utica, New York on Monday, Trump claimed Cuomo had called him to say he would never run for president against him. Cuomo denied this assertion to reporters on Tuesday.
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