New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mishandled the coronavirus outbreak, killing his state's senior citizens and worsening the spread in the rest of the country. His administration covered it up while he wrote a book about being a COVID-19 hero and daily bathed in undeserved and obscene media praise. Now, we learn he abused his power in sexually harassing and manhandling women.
Cuomo needs to resign.
We understand that the governor values our opinion at less than zero. After all, he has worn on his sleeve his personal disdain for all conservatives, even declaring it official state policy. Cuomo also seems unmoved by Democratic leaders in his state, including the state's Senate president.
That’s why the big guys need to place a call to Albany.
President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have the clout to push Cuomo out. Biden and Schumer are intimate with Wall Street and other donor bases in ways very few politicians are. They could squeeze Cuomo until he had no choice.
Biden and Schumer should push out the “Love Guv” simply because his actions are gravely unfitting for a statesman.
Activists, select journalists, and state residents have spent months demanding answers about New York’s unusually high nursing home death rate. Thanks to their hard work, we know New York’s health department on March 25, 2020, released an advisory mandating that long-term care facilities accept "the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals.”
"No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19," the advisory stated. "[Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission."
It was not long before the people of New York pushed back on the order, prompting Cuomo to issue a separate mandate on May 10 that patients must first test negative for the coronavirus prior to admission to a nursing home.
Later, on May 21, the Associated Press reported that more than “4,500 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York's already vulnerable nursing homes" because of Cuomo’s directive. That same month, the original March 25 order issued by Cuomo was mysteriously scrubbed from the New York Department of Health's website.
Then, in July, a study by New York’s health department found that "approximately 6,326 COVID-positive residents were admitted to nursing facilities between March 25, 2020, and May 8, 2020."
In August, the Associated Press reported separately that as many as 11,000 people may have died because of Cuomo's nursing home advisory.
"New York’s coronavirus death toll in nursing homes … could actually be a significant undercount,” the outlet reports. “Unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.”
It adds, "That statistic could add thousands to the state’s official care home death toll of just over 6,600. But so far the administration of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has refused to divulge the number, leading to speculation the state is manipulating the figures to make it appear it is doing better than other states and to make a tragic situation less dire."
Amazingly, even after all these details came to light, Cuomo brazenly claimed in October 2020 that long-term care facilities in the Empire State “never needed” to accept coronavirus-positive patients.
“It never happened,” he stated.
But it did happen. What’s worse is that we know now that the governor’s office tried to cover up what happened. We know now the governor’s office rewrote a report in June 2020 to hide the actual nursing home death tally. We know now the administration hid New York’s true COVID-19 nursing home death toll last year because it feared the truth would be used against it by federal investigators.
We also know now the Cuomo administration issued an order forcing homes for people with developmental disabilities to accept coronavirus patients. An estimated 552 residents in these homes died later of the virus. The Cuomo administration has never rescinded that order.
Now, Cuomo has been snatched from his place of glory and plunged into ignominy. In addition to the new consensus view that he badly mismanaged COVID-19, he is beset by multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including from former aides who claim he harassed them with suggestive questions and even touched them inappropriately.
The onetime hero of the coronavirus pandemic is now staring into a deep pit — a pit that could get deeper still if investigators look more closely into the nursing home matter.
Biden and Schumer (who is the senior senator from New York) have more than enough reasons to demand Cuomo resign.
Beyond the basic justice of driving Cuomo out, there’s ample partisan reason: It’s bad for the Democratic Party to protect a serial sexual harasser once again after it spent decades defending Bill Clinton and tried to ruin the lives of his critics.
More importantly, Biden and Schumer should want to restore trust in America’s institutions. During the pandemic, our government and media establishment have already frittered away credibility — opposing masks, mandating masks, sowing doubt about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines for partisan purposes.
Much of the media will continue to look the other way. Cuomo will continue to hang on. Biden and Schumer can do the right thing for the country and tell Cuomo to return to the private.
