New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was the target of widespread mockery after claiming in CNN and MSNBC interviews that “incompetent government” was responsible for COVID’s deaths in his state.
Cuomo made the statement for the first time in a friendly interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, insisting that former President Donald Trump and an incompetent federal response were to blame. Critics quickly realized and asked whether Cuomo’s decision to allow COVID-positive patients to be taken to nursing homes could also have been a factor.
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“This state, I am very proud of what the New Yorkers did, because they came together. We were ambushed like no other state, Nicolle, and again, it was due to federal incompetence, ”said Cuomo.
“An incompetent government kills people. More people died than needed to die in COVID. That’s the truth.”
While Cuomo tried to blame the Trump administration, his comment was quickly ridiculed on social media, as many people pointed out that many of the deaths related to coronavirus in New York occurred after the controversial state decision of March 2020 to issue a directive requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients discharged from hospitals.
The guideline was reversed in May, when Cuomo said that hospitals cannot send patients back to nursing homes unless the test is negative. In the months that followed, Cuomo used to get the better of the decision, although he received great approval from names like CNN and MSNBC.
At the end of the summer, there were 6,600 deaths that occurred on nursing homes, as reported by the Associated Press. Janice Dean of Fox News, who openly criticized Cuomo’s response to the pandemic after his in-laws died of the virus at their separate New York senior facilities, criticized the governor for his lack of self-awareness.
“He’s right. Too bad he doesn’t realize he’s talking about himself,” Dean tweeted.
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Later on Tuesday, Cuomo appeared on liberal CNN, the network that is the home of his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, and repeated the same point of talking about “incompetent government” killing people.
“Look, an incompetent government can kill people, this is not a joke, and more people died here than necessary,” Cuomo told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer newspaper.
Many used Twitter to scoff at Cuomo’s discussion point:
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Presumably, Cuomo noticed widespread criticism, as he became more specific and named Trump specifically when he joined Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC on Wednesday morning to discuss plans to increase the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in New York
“The Trump administration announced eligibility, over 65, so you take a state like New York, where seven million people are eligible for the vaccine, over 65, health professionals, essential professionals, etc. Seven million people We receive 250,000 doses a week, “said Cuomo. “So, they built a tremendous supply and demand disaster.”
Ruhle then asked how long it would take to vaccinate the entire Empire State if supplies were not an issue. Cuomo again criticized the Trump administration, saying the former president did not ask for enough doses to start.
None of the interviewers asked Cuomo about the nursing home decision or rejected Cuomo’s narrative of blaming the Trump administration.
Cuomo emerged as a liberal media hero during the pandemic, and he even wrote a book and won an Emmy award since his coronavirus devastated his state. Last year, the Cuomo brothers were often criticized when the governor appeared regularly on their younger brother’s program on CNN, but used to joke and tease each other instead of focusing on important coronavirus issues.
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Cuomo’s friendly treatment has been a stark contrast to traditional media coverage by Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who is often vilified for his state’s handling of the virus.
Fox News’s Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.