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New York senator speaks on the state’s high number of coronavirus cases

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New York’s coronavirus curve is bending upward fast, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants Washington to move just as quickly.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand sat down with ABC News on March 20, 2020, as her home state absorbed the sharpest coronavirus spike in the country. The interview landed the same day Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order directing 100% of New York’s nonessential workforce to stay home and ordering every nonessential business statewide to close. Gillibrand used the segment to back the governor’s shutdown, take aim at the Trump administration’s pace on emergency relief, and lay out what she wanted included in the trillion-dollar rescue package then being hammered out in the Senate.

• Gillibrand’s ABC News interview aired March 20, 2020, the same day Governor Cuomo ordered 100% of New York’s nonessential workforce to stay home and all nonessential businesses statewide to close.
• She criticized the Trump administration over the speed and scope of the federal emergency response, pressing for medical supplies and personal protective equipment for front-line healthcare workers.
• She detailed her demands for the multitrillion-dollar Senate relief package: direct financial relief for families, expanded paid sick leave, expanded unemployment assistance, and fast liquidity for small businesses forced to close.

Backing Cuomo’s Shutdown Order

Gillibrand’s comments came as New York’s confirmed case count kept climbing, prompting Cuomo to move from a partial workforce reduction to a full 100% stay-home mandate paired with a statewide closure of nonessential businesses. In the interview, Gillibrand evaluated that order directly, framing it as the necessary response to a public health trajectory she described as severe and worsening by the day. She treated the shutdown less as a political flashpoint and more as a matter of arithmetic — case totals rising fast enough that New York couldn’t wait on Washington to act first.

Taking Aim at the Federal Response

Where Gillibrand drew a sharper line was on the Trump administration itself. She criticized the White House over how quickly — and how broadly — it had moved to mobilize emergency resources, arguing New York’s hospitals needed medical supplies and personal protective equipment for front-line workers faster than the federal government was delivering them. The same week’s coverage of governors clashing with the White House over resources, detailed in several states imposing stricter coronavirus restrictions as infections continue to spike, shows Gillibrand wasn’t alone in pressing that case.

Gillibrand pressed for critical federal resources, medical supplies, and personal protective equipment for front-line healthcare workers as New York’s case count surged.

The Fight Over the Relief Package

Beyond the state-level shutdown, Gillibrand walked through the congressional negotiations then underway over a proposed multitrillion-dollar federal economic relief package. She pushed for direct financial relief payments to affected families, expanded paid sick leave, and robust unemployment assistance for workers suddenly out of work because of mandatory closures. She also flagged the urgency of getting liquidity to small businesses shuttered by Cuomo’s order before they collapsed outright — a concern that would only sharpen as debate over what eventually became the next stimulus package stretched on in Washington.

Gillibrand’s appearance captured the split-screen moment New York found itself in on March 20: a governor locking down the state in real time, and its senator on national television trying to make sure Washington moved at the same speed her constituents were being asked to.