'A Declaration of War on the States': Andrew Cuomo Lashes Out at Trump's Potential New York Quarantine (VIDEO)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference alongside the National Guard at the Jacob Javits Center that will house a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Monday, March 23, 2020, in New York. New York City hospitals are just 10 days from running out of “really basic supplies,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said late Sunday. De Blasio has called upon the federal government to boost the city’s quickly dwindling supply of protective equipment. The city also faces a potentially deadly dearth of ventilators to treat those infected by the coronavirus. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

As reported by CNN, on Saturday, Donald Trump said he’s considering imposing a short-term quarantine in select areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Amid the tri-state area, certain “hot spots” are flaring with COVID-19 cases.

Therefore, he explained the following to reporters as he left the White House for Norfolk Naval Station:

“We’re thinking about certain things. Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hotspot. … We might not have to do it, but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine, short-term, two weeks on New York. Probably New Jersey, certain parts of Connecticut.”

Gov. Cuomo on possibility Trump will impose enforced quarantine on New York: "This would be a declaration of war on states." pic.twitter.com/7rCFHMWzTh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2020

More from CNN:

Trump’s suggestion comes after the United States this week became the epicenter of the global pandemic, with at least 111,000 reported Covid-19 cases across the country, and more than 52,000 of them in New York state alone. Officials forecast that the apex of the pandemic there is still 14 to 21 days away. But overwhelmed hospitals, in New York as well as across the US, working to treat coronavirus patients and curb the spread of the virus are facing a shortage of supplies and ventilators, a key piece of equipment.

Speaking of hospitals, as I covered previously, the government has employed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to convert hospitable structures across the nation to medical centers if the need for such extra accommodations arises.

In fact, the Commander-in-Chief was headed to Norfolk to send off a Navy hospital ship — to New York.

Back to POTUS’s potential plans, at a press conference in Albany, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he spoke with Trump Saturday morning, but that they hadn’t discussed any kind of quarantine:

“I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable,” the Democratic governor said during in a news conference in Albany. “And from a medical point view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing.”

“But I can tell you, I don’t even like the sound of it.”

He sure doesn’t — he hammered that point on CNN’s Newsroom in the early evening.

The host asked, “If you think that these actions are illegal, what are you prepared to do? Would you sue…the federal government? What happens?”

Andrew had some eyebrow-raising words — he called a federal quarantine a “declaration of war.”

“Well, I’ve sued the federal government many times, by the way, over the past few years — we have had quite a number policy decisions. I do not believe it’s going to come to that on this. Again, I’ve been speaking to the President. This would be a declaration of war on states. A federal declaration of war. And it wouldn’t just be New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. Next week, it would be Louisiana with New Orleans. And the week after that, it would be Detroit in Michigan, and it would run all across the nation. And I don’t think the President is looking to start a lot of wars with a lot of states just about now for a lot of reasons.”

Yet, as relayed by CNN, Trump believes it’s wholly enforceable. And it would involve restricting travel, though not for truckers:

Trump, however, said that possible quarantine would be “enforceable” and “restrict travel” from those parts of the tri-state area. He also said any quarantine wouldn’t affect truckers from outside the New York area.

“Restrict travel, because they’re having problems down in Florida, a lot of New Yorkers going down. We don’t want that,” he said.

During a Saturday briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared to take a very different attitude than Andrew:

“There’s a lot of logistics involved, and I think the President is well suited to figure that out. Whatever works, I think we need to do.”

If any of this is going to happen, it looks like it’ll be soon:

I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing “hot spots”, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2020