before she left office and the protecting new yorkers from covid-19 would be her top priority. today, president joe biden issued a statement congratulating california's governor, gavin newsom, on crushing the republican recall attempt last night. saying quote >> this vote is a resounding win for the approach he and i share to beating the pandemic, strong vaccine requirements, strong steps to reopen schools safely, and strong plans to distribute real medicines, not fixed treatments, to help those who get sick. the fact that voters in both traditionally democratic and traditionally republican parts of the state, rejected the recall. shows that americans are unifying behind taking the steps to get the pedal mick behind us. >> new york is the second largest state with a democratic governor, and governor hochul has also been taking the kind of strong steps that joe biden takes today. one of the first acts as governor kathy hochul mandated