New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says Trump taught Americans what incompetence looks like

In his Democratic National Convention speech, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said the coronavirus pandemic has taught Americans a "critical lesson — how vulnerable we are when we are divided and how many lives can be lost when our government is incompetent."

Cuomo slammed President Trump and his administration's response to the coronavirus, saying it was "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 politicize it." New York was hit hard by COVID-19 in the spring, and Cuomo accused the federal government of watching his state "get ambushed" and "suffer" because of its "negligence."

The country's "collective strength is exercised through government," Cuomo continued, and it 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." That doesn't mean things can't turn around, though; Cuomo said America can "still rise to the occasion. We can put our differences aside and find commonality." Government and leadership matter, and both determine "whether we thrive and grow or whether we live and die," he added.

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Cuomo said this is why he is backing former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. He is a "leader as good as our people," Cuomo declared. "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."