Despite presiding over the single worst coronavirus hot spot outside of China, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been lionized as the media’s hero of the crisis. His plaudits stem from his diplomatic handling of an ordinarily fraught relationship with President Trump, and his daily briefings on the pandemic have provided a necessary sort of transparency sorely missing in other states.

But pressed with even the mildest pressure from journalists, Cuomo has shown signs of cracking. Wednesday provided the clearest example yet. In trying to justify a continuation of his state’s draconian shutdown, Cuomo not only dismissed the economic hardships of those 26 million people who lost their jobs in the past month, but also shared an outright falsehood about domestic violence.