Gov. Cuomo Agrees With Trump on WHO: They Did ‘Too Little, Too Late’

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sided with President Donald Trump over the World Health Organization on Friday, saying the organization did “too little, too late” in acting against the coronavirus pandemic.

“Whose job is it to warn us of these global pandemics?” Cuomo said at a daily press conference in Albany. “The president says it’s the World Health Organization, and that’s why he’s taken action against them. Not my field. But he’s right to ask the question because this was too little, too late.”

Trump acted this month to cut more than $500 million U.S. funding to the WHO over its lackluster response to the coronavirus pandemic. China responded this week by saying that it would send the organization an additional $30 million on top of its annual $43 million contribution.

An online petition demanding WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus‘ resignation had garnered more than 1 million signatures as of Friday.

Cuomo also seemed to suggest that Trump’s Jan. 31 travel ban aimed at China didn’t go far enough. “The coronavirus flu — virus — that came to New York did not come from China,” Cuomo said. “It came from Europe. … How can you expect that when you act two months after the outbreak in China the virus was only in China waiting for us to act? The horse had already left the barn by the time we moved. Knowing the amount of flights coming to New York from Italy was like watching a horrible train wreck in slow motion.

“We closed the front door with the China travel ban, which was right,” he added. “But we left the back door open, because the virus had left China by the time we did the China travel ban.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.