The New York Governor made his first appearance on 'The Daily Show' on Wednesday.
Andrew Cuomo is fighting the war against the coronavirus as governor of New York, but it hit home once his brother, Chris Cuomo, tested positive for the disease.
The politician got candid about how having his family fight the virus personally affected him, while giving his first late-night interview on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah on Thursday. When asked how his brother's diagnosis shaped his experience, Andrew got emotional recalling how he worried that Chris "could die."
"It is my brother and he's my man. He is my best friend. And you know, I don't like to give him any credit because that's the whole 'big brother and little brother' thing," he cracked. "But the guy is a superstar. He really is, and he is a beautiful guy, just a beauty. But he gets sick. He is in his basement. I can't even go see him, and then his wife [Cristina Cuomo] gets sick. She's quarantined upstairs. He's quarantined in the basement. He's got three kids, a 17-year-old and two younger [kids] and [they] can't go see him. I can't help the kids. I mean, it is just terrible, nightmare of a science fiction of a movie where you can have loved ones with this disease, where nobody knows whether you are going to live or die."
"I kept saying to him, 'Don't worry. You're young. You are fine,'" Andrew continued. "Yeah, sure, but who knows, right? Because yes, it tends to attack seniors, but you also have younger people who are dying, and there is nothing I could do. I am his big brother. I love him more than anybody. I am the governor of the state. [There was] nothing that I can do to help."
Andrew explained how his brother's diagnosis shows how people can't control everything, no matter how hard they try.
"On top of all the disorientation, on top of the responsibility, then you just have this real-life situation where you worry every day, that is he going to be the one... that could lose his life, that could die from this," he said, getting emotional. "So it does bring it home, it does bring it home."
Chris, luckily, has recovered from the flu-like virus. On Wednesday, however, he and Cristina revealed that their 14-year-old son, Mario, had contracted the coronavirus. The CNN journalist has since revealed that both his wife and son are "doing fine."
The governor, meanwhile, did express that he holds himself "responsible" for all the thousands of lives that have been lost in his state due to coronavirus.
"This is traumatic. This is PTSD for an entire generation that will talk about this, and it is personal. So I tried to communicate how I feel, personally, and my fear and my anxiety, as part of this, to say to you, 'You are not alone. Everyone is feeling this. I am feeling it too,'" he candidly told Noah.
"I have to deal with the number of deaths in the state. 15,000 people, Trevor. 9/11, 2,700 people," he explained. "That was supposed to be the worst experience of my life, I believe. 2,700 people, this is 15,000 people, 474 people yesterday. That weighs heavily on me."
"I can sit here and say to you, 'I believe that we did everything that could possibly be done.' I don't believe we lost anyone because we didn't have a bed and we didn't have doctors and nurses. We did that," he continued. "But we still lost 15,000 people. And I still am the governor, and I still hold myself responsible, and I still say to myself, 'What else could I do? What else could I do? What else could I do? Was there anything else that we could be doing right now?' That is a very heavy burden to bear."
See more on Andrew and his family's battle with coronavirus in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
