Andrew Cuomo. Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is in hot water after new allegations of a coverup of the state's nursing home deaths have been found. New York Times. Cuomo received fawning coverage and praise from the news media and the Democrats for his handling of the pandemic but new information has come to light that suggests he lied about the deaths in nursing homes due to fear of a federal investigation. An aide for Cuomo, Mellissa DeRosa said that they were not sure if they were going to cooperate with a possible federal investigation or with the state legislators demands for more information. Democrats have since accused Cuomo of hiding the number of deaths in nursing homes. Bipartisan outrage from both the Democrats and Republicans has been fierce with Cuomo facing losing his emergency powers and even being called on to resign.
My Comment:
I don't usually use The New York Times as a source not only because they are biased but because they are usually locked behind a paywall. This article was not (perhaps because I am using a different computer?) and I think that the fact that it was the New York Times reporting this is significant.
As you may remember Cuomo received fawning coverage from the news media during the earlier days of the pandemic. While they were ripping into Trump for making decent decisions Cuomo was getting people in nursing homes killed. The media, however, was making it seem like New York had a good handle on the virus and that if Cuomo was in charge nationally we might have avoided the virus.
The fact that the media has turned on Cuomo is the big news here. Many people thought of him as a 2024 front runner and it looked like he had a long political career ahead of him. That seems to be over now as it will be lucky if he survives this scandal.
Why the change? I just don't think the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) wanted him to be an albatross around their necks anymore. Though Cuomo has a higher approval rating than New York City Mayor Bill De Blassio, he is slipping in popularity. And his actions are pretty much impossible to defend.
The decision to house sick Coronavirus patients in nursing homes was one of the most unimaginable "mistakes" we have seen during this pandemic. It is such a violation of common sense that it beggars belief to the point where you wonder if Cuomo and the other Democratic governors who did it were trying to get people killed. There was no excuse for doing it and it's not something that can be defended.
Covering it up afterwards was even worse. Had Cuomo just came clean and admitted that deaths in nursing homes were his fault he would have looked criminally incompetent. But now he looks incompetently criminal and there is a real chance he could be forced out of office. He did it in a way that not only managed to anger Republicans, he enraged his own party by lying to them as well. It was a terrible political move.
I think Cuomo's political career is done and that we won't be seeing much of him after his term ends. I don't see how he survives this scandal, the families of the dead are furious, his own party is cutting him loose and anyone that runs against him will have a built in advantage of facing a guy that screwed over his own constituents and got them killed.
Still, it's pretty frustrating that the media only decided to throw Cuomo under the bus now in 2021. It was pretty clear last summer that the guy was lying through his teeth and that he shouldn't be governor anymore but if the media doesn't report something then it basically doesn't exist. To them it was worth it to prop up Cuomo if it meant making President Trump look good on the issue. As far as I am concerned the news media is an accomplice here.
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