New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Monday, the same day as his 2021 State of the State speech, tweeted his support for reopening the economy despite his previous hesitancy toward reopening and his tightened COVID-19 restrictions during the holidays. For this, he is facing severe backlash from conservatives across Twitter.

In a statement posed to Twitter just before noon, the Empire State governor said that New York cannot afford to wait until the vaccine “hits critical mass” to reopen the economy.

“We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass,” he tweeted. “The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.”

Back in November, before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, ahead of the holidays and amid COVID-19 cases spiking across the state and the country, Cuomo brought back coronavirus restrictions that ended indoor dining in New York City and further restricted the size of gatherings among other orders. In response to these restrictions, many restaurant and bar owners angrily protested.

While the tweet’s number of likes clocked in at 13,300 as of 2:28 pm (ET), the amount of quote tweets numbered at around 10,400, with most of them being critical of Cuomo’s statement.

Here are some of these tweets slamming the three-term governor:

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.