Cuomo, de Blasio spar over future of New York City school closures

The novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has brought a lot of people together across the United States, but it apparently hasn't thawed the frosty relationship between New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Despite hailing from the same political party, the two Democrats have been, per The New York Times, political rivals for years. That rivalry was on display Saturday when Cuomo contradicted de Blasio's earlier announcement that New York City public schools would remain closed through the end of the school year because of the virus.

Cuomo said that was merely the mayor's "opinion" and the actual decision would be coordinated across the entire New York metro area, taking into account the preferences of mayors from Long Island and Westchester County. Ideally, Cuomo said, he would also want New Jersey and Connecticut on board.

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"It makes no sense for one locality to take an action that's not coordinated with the others," he said.

In response, de Blasio's camp pointed out the mayor was quicker to call for a shelter-in-place order in March than the governor and was eventually proven right.

For what it's worth, Cuomo didn't sound opposed to shutting schools down for the rest of the year. But it does seem like he wants to be the one to make the call.