Few people have won an Emmy, written a book, and managed the fourth-largest state in the country during a worldwide health crisis all within the short span of a year. But Andrew Cuomo is somewhat of an anomaly. The New York State Democratic governor has achieved more notoriety during the COVID-19 crisis than most people do in an entire lifetime.
But to quote Oscar Wilde, “no good deed goes unpunished.” And Cuomo’s reputation is teetering in the wake of a scathing report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James that effectively holds him responsible for mass senicide. Findings reveal that “the number of COVID-related deaths in nursing homes was undercounted by as much as 50 percent.” The real number of coronavirus patients who died in elder-care facilities was 12,743, not 8,740.
So, truth be told, Cuomo is no hero; he is a corrupt politician with blood on his hands.
The governor’s rise and fall can be encapsulated in a brief timeline of events:
March-April 2020: New York becomes ground zero for the Chinese coronavirus. Tens of thousands of residents throughout the state become ill and thousands perish as a result of infection. Cases and deaths spike in the densely populated metropolis of New York City.
March 22: Cuomo orders New York State on PAUSE (Policies that Assure Uniform Safety for Everyone), shuttering nonessential businesses statewide. He also begins his daily coronavirus press briefings, which earn him plaudits from anchors at CNN, who lavish praise over his “inspiring” messaging:
We’re going to get through it because we are New York, and because we’ve dealt with a lot of things, and because we are smart…. We are resourceful, and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united … and because we are New York tough…. We’re going to make it because I love New York, and I love New York because New York loves you.
March 24: Cuomo promises to “turn the state upside down to get the number of beds we need,” calling all medical and healthcare professionals out of retirement “to deal with the issue.” He requests federal emergency assistance. The Trump administration delivers thousands of ventilators and PPE. He emphasizes that “job one has to be save lives… We are going to do everything we can to save every life that we can because that is what it means to be an American. That is what it means to be a New Yorker.”
While mainstream media reported Cuomo’s great strength in leadership, the governor’s now-infamous nursing-home decrees placing COVID-positive patients in nursing homes were going into effect, sending more than 12,000 seniors to their deaths.
In response to the report, Cuomo downplayed the situation: “If you look at New York state, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than other states…. A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes.”
“New York state, we’re only about 28 percent — only — but we’re below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes.”
“But who cares — 33 [percent], 29 [percent] — died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”
Cuomo’s astonishing comments and subsequent blaming the Trump administration for the tragedies, though no order from Washington was issued to take such action, only reaffirm the Democratic Party’s effective way of gaslighting the American people.
In sharp contrast to Cuomo, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has worked to increase protections for seniors in the Sunshine State. Said DeSantis in an interview with Fox News Primetime on January 28, “I barred hospitals from discharging COVID patients back into nursing homes. That was able to save a lot of lives on the front end. And now, here on, hopefully, the back end of the pandemic, our approach to vaccination is putting seniors first.”
Cuomo might receive his comeuppance next year. As reported in the Federalist, Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, whose in-laws died in their New York elder-care facilities as a result of Cuomo’s mandate, may run against him as a Republican.
In the meantime, Americans have every right to remain distrustful of highly praised Democratic leaders such as Andrew Cuomo. As the Biden administration calls for “accountability” of Trump supporters and a “reality czar” to rein in disinformation and extremism, Cuomo has never taken any responsibility for the irreparable harm he caused the citizens of New York whom he vowed “to save.”
