Trump widened divisions in American politics: New York State governor

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has slammed US President Donald Trump for widening the divisions in America's body politic and for his administration's "dysfunctional and incompetent" response to the coronavirus pandemic.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has slammed US President Donald Trump for widening the divisions in America's body politic and for his administration's "dysfunctional and incompetent" response to the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo spoke on the first day of the Democratic National Convention. The four-day convention was initially scheduled to be held in Wisconsin but it began virtually on Monday amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Presumptive Democratic Nominee Joe Biden, 77, and his running mate Kamala Harris, 55, will be formally nominated by the DNC.

Harris' nomination will be historic as she will be the first-ever Black as well as the first-ever American of Indian and African descent as a vice presidential candidate by a major political party. "We know that our problems go beyond the COVID-19 virus. COVID-19 is the symptom, not the illness. Our nation is in crisis. And in many ways COVID-19 is just a metaphor. A virus attacks when the body is weak and when it cannot defend itself," Cuomo said, in his address to the DNC.

Cuomo, whose handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York State has been hailed, said over the past few years American politics has been weakened. "The divisions have been growing deeper, the anti-semitism, the anti-Latino, the anti-immigrant fervour, the racism in Charlottesville, where the KKK didn't even bother to wear their hoods. And in Minnesota, where a life was squeezed from Mr (George) Floyd.

"Only a strong body (body politic) 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 said. Body politic is a metaphor comparing a state or institution to a human body, which has a hierarchical set up and division of labour.

Cuomo said the nation's collective strength is exercised through government and is in effect, "our immune system". "Our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent. It couldn't fight off the virus. In fact, it didn't even see it coming. The virus infected the Northeast while the White House was still fixated on China. The virus had been attacking us for months before they even knew it was here. We saw the failure of a government that tried to deny the virus, then tried to ignore it, and then tried to politicise it," Cuomo said.

Cuomo strongly criticised the Trump Administration for not learning from its mistakes of mishandling the pandemic and still being unprepared as a second wave of infections threatens the country. "So today, six months after it began, the nation is still unprepared. And we now face a second threat. But this time not from Mother Nature. This is a man-made threat by our own negligence. We now see the virus ricocheting across the country from one state to another. Today we trail the world in defeating COVID-19," he said, adding that Americans have learned a lesson that how vulnerable the nation is "when we are divided and how many lives can be lost when our government is incompetent." Cuomo asserted that the eyes of Americans have opened and in the coronavirus crisis they have seen the government's truth.

He said Americans now need a leader as good as its people. "A leader who appeals to the best within us, not the worst. A leader who can unify, not divide. A leader who can bring us up not tear us down," Cuomo said. He said Joe Biden, as a leader, has talent and strength. "I've seen his pain, and I've seen his heart. Joe Biden is what I call America tough; tough in the best way. 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," the governor said.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the US lost over 170,000 lives to the coronavirus, with over 5.4 million confirmed cases..