Cuomo: Trump camp is to blame
Campaign denies any involvement, support in “disgusting” robocall
Ahead of a demonstration in Brooklyn that turned violent this week, a robocall claimed that the efforts were being organized with the support of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.
While Trump’s campaign denies any involvement, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was a main target of the rally and robocall, sought to pin blame on the president during a conference call with reporters on Friday.
During the call, Cuomo played a recording of the robocall twice.
The robocall, which circulated in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park in Brooklyn, urged attendees to bring signs stating “Cuomo killed
thousands.”
“The Trump campaign is urging us to hold as many and as big of signs as possible,” stated the recording, which according to the call, was made by a man named Chaim Hersch Golderberger. “Please send this message around. Make it go viral.”
The New York Daily News, which first reported on the roboball, contacted the Trump campaign, which said that it “had no involvement with this.”
But in the call with reporters on Friday, Cuomo still pinned the call on the Trump campaign.
“How ugly, how divisive, how poisonous, how disgusting, how hurtful, how painful,” Cuomo said. “The Trump campaign wants to sow division. Meanwhile, they ’re putting people’s lives at risk.”
Earlier this week, Cuomo implemented tough restrictions on “hot spot” neighborhoods in New York where COVID -19 cases are spiking, including Borough Park.
That has sparked backlash, with hundreds taking to the streets in Borough Park, setting fires and burning masks.
On Friday, Cuomo called for an arrest to be made in the alleged assault of Jacob Kornbluh, a journalist for the publication Jewish Insider who has been covering the demonstrations.
“The law is the law. And there is no provision for discretion,” Cuomo said. “The person should be arrested.”