Robert De Niro is painting a picture of what it is like to live in New York City — the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
The actor, 76, spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday in which he bluntly stated he was unimpressed by the delayed response the federal government had to address the virus, although he praised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“I wish that people, the government had acted earlier,” De Niro said via Deadline. “They had enough warning. Because we would not be at this stage of this pandemic, I think, if that had happened.”
De Niro compared the feel of the to 9/11, saying, “It feels the same, except this is like something we see in a movie. It happened to fast.”
“It’s unreal to see every big city in the world just sort of empty,” he continued. “You only see that in a movie, and it’s happening to us.”
De Niro did praise Cuomo, 62, telling Tapper the governor was “doing a great job.”
“It’s so refreshing to see him speak and take charge, no matter what happens,” De Niro said. “He took action. I think he’s great. He’s a New Yorker. Italian-American. I understand him without him having to say too much.”
On Friday, President Donald Trump clashed with Cuomo on Twitter during the governor’s real-time televised coronavirus briefing.
Trump, 73, had tweeted that Cuomo “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining'” as the New York leader, a Democrat, told reporters during his daily coronavirus briefing that the state wasn’t ready to reopen its economy until it had widespread testing capabilities, which would require the federal government’s help.
Cuomo responded in real-time during Friday’s press briefing.
“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Cuomo told reporters after being made aware that Trump was apparently live-tweeting the briefing. “Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this and personal ego, if we can, because this is about the people and it’s about our job. Let’s try to focus on that.”
As of Friday, more than 12,000 people have died in New York City, according to a New York Times tracker, out of more than 222,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease.
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