New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s catastrophic failure surrounding the state’s growing nursing home scandal represents a permanent stain on a legacy tainted with lies, chaos and thousands of deaths, critics say – and he could be leading his younger brother with him.
The Cuomo nursing home controversy returned to focus last week, when his aide admitted that his administration had withheld the true number of COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes to avoid federal scrutiny, as reported by New York Post.
NEW YORK GOV. BROTHER OF CUOMO QUIET IN HOME NURSING SCANDAL
The state was forced to recognize a death toll among nursing home residents that reached about 15,000 after initially reporting 8,500 – a figure that excluded residents who died in a hospital.
Cuomo’s directive for nursing homes to accept patients who had or were suspected of having COVID-19 has since been considered “one of the biggest pandemic scandals.” The decision created a violent attack on COVID-19 cases that infected most of the state’s elderly patients and resulted in thousands of deaths among the most vulnerable population.
But when New York residents began to raise questions about the growing death toll in senior care institutions, the governor’s younger brother and more fervent protector, Chris Cuomo, offered him a platform on his CNN program, ” Cuomo Prime Time “, to attract viewers by conducting fun conversations on the air, largely avoiding the scandal of the nursing home.
“This is not just a government scandal. It is a media scandal,” wrote New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz in a recent column. “While the Cuomo government was condemning elderly people to death, the media was busy fawning over Cuomo in a series of softball interviews, many of them conducted by his own brother.”
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While the grieving New Yorkers waited angrily for answers, the Cuomo brothers played in the air on trivial matters, wondering aloud which of them would be considered their mother’s favorite son and even resorting to physical comedy when the anchor of the CNN presented a cartoon cotton swab for his brother to use for a coronavirus test.
Days after old Cuomo reversed the course and signed an executive order on May 11 preventing hospitals from sending infected patients back to nursing homes and increasing tests for the team, he appeared on his brother’s program for a 25-minute meeting. who made no mention of the death toll in nursing homes.
The CNN anchor finally mentioned the controversy to his brother after ignoring it for at least 10 interviews on the air, but the governor quickly pointed out how there were deaths in nursing homes “across the country” and said “we have to figure out how to do it better next time “before the next virus wave occurs.
In a different interview, the younger brother praised “Love Gov” as the leader of New York and even admitted to viewers: “Sure, I’m not objective” when expressing his love for his brother.
“He is my older brother. I love him. Of course, I am not objective, but let’s get to the point. See the state, see the numbers … Yes, he is my brother,” said young Cuomo no Tempo. “There is no doubt. I can cry about it in a second, but the results are there for everyone to see. Was it perfect? No, you tell me what it is, but look at the state our country is in. I think it will reflect on what’s going to happen in November, so you haven’t been paying attention. “
Along the way, Governor Cuomo emerged as a darling of the liberal media, writing a book about his leadership during the pandemic. Months of brilliant coverage of his brother’s network even earned him an Emmy award for his instructions on the coronavirus.
The development of a bomb in the scandal involving the two brothers emerged last week when the Post reported that Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s secretary, told Empire Democrats during a videoconference that the government had misrepresented the true death toll to DOJ investigators. for fear that the data could “be used against us”.
Since the scandal broke, Chris Cuomo has not mentioned him on his show or tweeted about him – devoting tweets and airtime to former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
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Republicans who accuse the administration of a deliberate “cover-up” are now calling for investigations and the resignations of Governor Cuomo and DeRosa. A growing number of Democrats are joining calls to rescind Governor Cuomo’s emergency executive powers, detonating the government’s defense of its secrecy, while his brother remains silent.
Governor Cuomo defended himself after the nursing home report, saying, “Everyone did the best they could.”
At a news conference on Friday, he said the state followed federal guidance. “If you think there was a mistake, go and talk to the federal government,” he said. “It is not about pointing fingers or blaming, this has become political football.”