President Donald Trump and the governor of his home state, New York Democrat Andrew Cuomo, sparred over Twitter on Wednesday night — neither of them holding any punches.
Trump accused Cuomo of “having a total meltdown” over remarks the governor had made earlier in the day.
“We’re not going to make America great again, It was never that great,” Cuomo had said at a bill signing ceremony in the context of gender equality.
“We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged. We will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping of women — 51 percent of our population — is gone, and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed,” Cuomo elaborated.
The governor responded promptly to Trump’s Twitter jab. “What you say would be ‘great again’ would not be great at all,” Cuomo tweeted.
Cuomo has faced a chorus of Republican criticism for his original remark.
Marcus Molinaro, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in New York, said in a statement that “America, with its imperfections, has always been great.”
Cuomo “should be ashamed of himself,” he added.
The governor’s press secretary Dani Lever clarified on Wednesday afternoon that Cuomo does believe “America is great” but also “that her full greatness will be fully realized when every man, woman, and child has full equality.”
“When the president speaks about making America great again — going back in time — he ignores the pain so many endured and that we suffered from slavery, discrimination, segregation, sexism and marginalized women’s contributions,” Lever said.