ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — New York Sen. Chuck Schumer held a short press conference via Facebook Live on Wednesday in the wake of Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

“We sure did not take the most direct path to get here, but here we are,” Schumer began the press conference to claim the Senate Majority.

Schumer said that a new Democratic majority conference is focused on helping Americans through the pandemic. “One of the first things that I want to do when our new Senators are seated is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families,” he said.

Schumer highlighted the historic election of Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black Senator.

“Couldn’t come at a better moment,” said the senior senator from New York’s senior senator and longtime minority leader. Democrats have been in the minority in the Senate for six years.

“As Majority Leader, President Biden and Vice-President-elect Harris will have a partner in me and my caucus, who is ready, willing, and able to help achieve a forward-looking agenda and deliver bold change to the American people. For too long, much-needed help has been stalled or diluted by a Republican-led Senate and President Trump. That will change with a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House, and a Democratic President.”

During his briefing on Wednesday, the governor said results for the senate runoff race in Georgia was a victory for New York. He said Washington abused New York for the past four years.

“They have been political about it, and it’s been really devastating to the state. And I want to congratulate the incoming majority senate leader [Sen. Chuck Schumer],” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “This was a very, very big win for the Democratic Senate and it bodes well for the state of New York. Washington has abused the state of New York for many, many years. They have been unethical, they have been political, they have taken money out of this state and sent it to Republican states. They’ve used New York as a political piñata to appeal to Republicans throughout the country, they enhanced the division in this country by using New York as an example.”

The governor said Wednesday marked the end of Washington theft from New York and the beginning of compensation.

“New Yorkers have been criminal victims, as far as I’m concerned, by the theft of the federal government and our message to Washington will be very clear: We want a return on our property that was stolen,” Cuomo said. “We’ve had the lowest Medicaid reimbursement in the U.S. because they don’t believe in providing healthcare coverage for low income people and we do, so they penalized us through Medicaid.”

“It cost New Yorkers $30 billion over the past three years — pure cash, $30 billion,” Gov. Cuomo said. We now have a $15 billion deficient, and they took $30 billion. At a minimum, we have to get $15 billion this year to cover our deficit. It just shows you how difficult closing the 15 billion was going to be. That was going to be the State of the State. Now, it’s going to be much different. It’s a different senate. The senate knows darn well what they did to us over the years.”

The governor said the new Senate Majority will force him to rewrite the State of the State, his annual address to New Yorkers. He said the rewriting effort will alter upcoming weekend plans in Western New York.

“Good news is, it [Democratic senate] is a very good development for the state of New York,” Gov. Cuomo said. “Bad news is, I have to rewrite the state of the state, and the really bad news is I’m not going to be able to get to the Bills game this weekend. We started the drive through testing this morning. This is a model for us to see what we can do to reopen venues.”