Governor Cuomo threatens the safety of Trump over NYC federal funding, then quickly walks it back

Cuomo quickly demanded a press briefing on Wednesday evening after Trump made the statement amid the city's surging murder rate and defunding of police.

"He better have an army if he thinks he’s gonna walk down the street in New York. New Yorkers don’t want to have anything to do with him," the governor said, seeming to threaten Trump's life.

Cuomo charged Trump's statement with not only being illegal, but directly assaulting the city by saying "it is another attempt to kill New York City."

This comes as the month of July alone saw a 50 percent rise in murders in the city. Amny.com reported: "On Aug. 3, the NYPD released the July 2020 crime stats, which shows that there was 177 percent increase year-over-year in the number of shooting incidents across the city in July with 244 in total. In July 2019, there were only 88 shootings over the course of the month. The number of shootings increased by 72 percent year-to-date, with 450 by July 2019 to 772 by July 2020."

"President Ford said drop dead. President Trump has been actively trying to kill New York City since he's been elected," Cuomo added. Cuomo continued with the insults, saying Trump does not care about New York City because he was rejected there, adding that "he was dismissed as a clown in New York City, those who know him best, like him least."

While the governor attempted to pin Trump for the significant death toll in the city due to COVID-19, Cuomo's critics have blamed his Health Department's mandate that barred "nursing homes from turning away COVID-19-positive patients, potentially leading to at least 6,500 deaths," the Post reported.

Cuomo then carefully walked back his overt threats against the president: “My comment about the president and bodyguards in New York City, all I’m saying is that he is persona non grata in New York City. And I think he knows that. And he’ll never come back to New York, because New Yorkers will never forget how gratuitously mean he has been to New Yorkers and how many times he’s tried to kill the city that gave him his start and birthed him. That’s what I meant about the bodyguards.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also had his press secretary, Bill Neidhardt, chime in: "As much as Donald Trump wants New York City to drop dead, we will never let this stand. This has nothing to do with ‘law and order.’ This is a racist campaign stunt out of the Oval Office to attack millions of people of color.”

De Blasio himself did not comment.

Trump responded Thursday morning to Cuomo's accusations, tweeting that the puppet prosecutors in New York had illegally been after him and his family for years.