President Trump on Friday asked Vice President Mike Pence to fill in for him on a call with governors after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state leaders joined the 12:15 call about supporting seniors during the coronavirus pandemic. The discussion was the only publicly listed item on Trump’s schedule Friday after he nixed a DC fundraiser and a campaign trip to Florida.
“When the call started, the vice president did the call and said the president asked him to handle the call for him,” Cuomo told 1010 WINS radio.
But a White House official told The Post “you shouldn’t read too much into a slight schedule change.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters that Trump is only experiencing mild symptoms from the virus.
On Friday morning, Trump called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to urge them to press forward with confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
“The president is hard at work and has been working the phones all day from the residence talking to the Chief of Staff, Leader McConnell, Senator Graham and others,” the White House official told The Post.
Earlier Friday, Cuomo was conciliatory toward Trump, despite numerous clashes in recent months.
Gov. Andrew CuomoRobert Miller“Politics is politics and we can disagree on policy issues, but on a human level the president grew up in New York, from Queens,” the Democratic governor said. “I know the first lady, I’ve spoken with her. And I sincerely wish them the best — a speedy recovery.”
Trump, 74, issued an after-midnight tweet early Friday announcing that he and the first lady were positive for the serious respiratory bug, which infected 7.2 million Americans and killed 207,000 since March.
The president tweeted: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”
