The scandal that has New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reputation going up in smoke right now is about two things: a high-ranking Democratic official and sexual harassment.
What it’s definitely not about is Republicans, President Biden, or the pandemic. Someone tell the Associated Press.
The organization on Friday reported on the slew of Democratic leaders, including New York’s two U.S. senators, who have in recent days called for Cuomo to resign now that seven women have accused him of sexual misconduct.
That’s a pretty straightforward concept. But then came the twist. “Republicans,” the Associated Press said, “have seized on the scandal to try to distract from Biden’s success tackling the coronavirus pandemic and challenge his party’s well-established advantage with female voters.”
Aha! Republicans, you see, are just as guilty here. They’ve “seized on the scandal” in order to “distract” from all the great things Biden is doing.
Ridiculous. I don’t recall the outlet reporting on the Democrats who “seized” on the Brett Kavanaugh hearings in order to “distract” from former President Donald Trump’s “success” with the judiciary.
No, I don’t recall that one at all.
The media do this all the time though. It’s probably every conservative’s biggest gripe with the press and their unfailing ability to make any scandal or controversy that involves Democrats into a messy partisan squabble that implicates Republicans.
Conservatives with a fatalist sense of humor call it the “Republicans pounce” trick. Googling “Republicans pounce” or “conservatives pounce” renders an endless series of results of major news publications reporting not on a Democrat at the center of a scandal or controversy but on how Republicans are talking about it.
And what “success” does Biden have with regard to the pandemic? New COVID-19 cases had been falling at the start of the year, but the drop stalled late last month, and we’re now leveling out at close to 50,000 new cases each day. There have been 125,000 virus-related deaths since Biden took office.
If Republicans wanted to “distract” from that, they wouldn’t need a Democratic governor to be accused of sexual harassment.
