Labor Day weekend beachgoers in New York were met with a message about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus response.
“THE GOV KILLED NANA,” a banner flown over New York City and Long Island read on Saturday.
“The people were going crazy,” one beachgoer told the New York Post. “[Cuomo] is nothing but a liar, condescending and miserable person. His carelessness caused the death of a lot of people unnecessarily.”
The Democratic governor has been criticized for issuing a March 25 order that required some recovering coronavirus patients to be placed into nursing homes. So far, at least 6,447 New York residents died in nursing homes due to the coronavirus.
Among the governor’s most vocal critics of the mandate is Fox News’s Janice Dean, who lost both of her elderly in-laws to the coronavirus when they were living in nursing homes.
“Cuomo’s motto during the coronavirus pandemic has always been ‘New York Tough,'” Dean wrote in an op-ed earlier this summer. “But when it comes to tough questions about his leadership during this time, Cuomo has shown he isn’t so tough after all. In fact, he prefers to place blame on anyone but himself for the disastrous decisions he’s made.”
“At first, we didn’t blame anyone for their deaths. This is a pandemic, and the virus is particularly dangerous for the elderly,” Dean said. “We had no idea until it was too late.”
Cuomo’s office responded to the banner by saying it was evidence of “conspiracy nuts” drumming up fear in others.
“Everyone knows this governor has worked day in and day out to protect all New Yorkers, and that’s why these sad, politically motivated lies always land with a thud, and I have no comment on how conspiracy nuts want to waste their money,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.
The banner comes after President Trump said his reelection campaign will work to flip the state red after decades of voting for Democrats in general elections.
“Over the last six months, what’s happened is insane. It’s insane. So, we’re going to try very hard to win New York, and that will be the first time — is that since Ronald Reagan, I guess? Since Ronald Reagan,” Trump said.
“I will bring down taxes, and I’ll make sure that New York City is a safe place. I mean, this is one of our cherished — this is a cherished diamond of this country. And we can’t let this happen to New York.”
