Gavin Newsom pushes back on Behar's suggestion he has to feed Trump's 'ego' for coronavirus help

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Who is Gavin Newsom? Here are 4 facts about California's governor

California Governor Gavin Newsom has taken on a leading role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are four interesting facts about the governor.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom defended President Trump's collaboration with this state on "The View" after co-host Joy Behar suggested that he and others had to feed Trump's "ego" in order to get assistance.

"Lately you've been praising him for the help he's giving you," Behar told Newsom on Friday. "Well, of course, you have to because look at how he treats governors who don't kiss his ring -- the governor of Washington, the governor of Michigan -- he said they were not appreciative and told Mike Pence, 'Don't call them back.'"

"Do you feel like you have to feed this guy's ego to get the respirators and to get the PPEs [personal protective equipment] -- is that what's going on?" she asked.

Newsom acknowledged that his state has sued the administration dozens of times. He added, however, that his state and the administration saw strong collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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"Our relationship began earlier than most and so from that perspective, all I can say is from my perspective, the relationship has been strong. And I'm not doing it to kiss the ring, I'm not doing it in a way that ... I've just been forthright with the president. He returns calls, he reaches out, he's been proactive," Newsom said.

"We got that Mercy ship in down here in Los Angeles. That was directly because he sent it down here -- 2,000 medical units came to the state of California ... these field medical stations and that's been very, very helpful."

But Newsom also told co-host Sunny Hostin that he and other states were bypassing the Trump administration in order to deal with the pandemic.

"Some are saying that some states are getting preferential treatment from the president," Hostin said. "If that is the case, do you foresee governors basically having to work together and just sort of bypass the administration."

"Well, the good news," Newsom replied, "is that governors are already doing that in a very collaborative way."

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He cited collaboration with other states' procurement agencies, as well as governor-only calls held by the National Governors' Association.

"Almost 36 million masks we’ve distributed in the state of California," Newsom said. "We’ve received just over 1 million from the federal government. That’s not a cheap shot, that's not fingerpointing. It’s just reality. So when you ask, are we going to rely on the federal government or are we going to rely on ourselves? We’re going to rely disproportionately on ourselves."