New York Governor Andrew Cuomo often finds it difficult to apologize, but he may have to apologize after revelations that his office has deliberately concealed data on deaths in Covid-19 nursing homes from state legislators and the public, Democratic Insiders the party said Tuesday.
“He needs to sincerely apologize to the victims’ families,” said a former Democratic strategist, who asked not to be identified by name. “I know it’s hard for him to apologize, but he just needs to. It’s the right thing to do, and Republicans have made it a celebrated cause to go after him.”
Another member of the Democratic Party, who also asked not to be identified by name, said Cuomo “presented himself as an accountant of the truth”.
“This is a dagger at the heart of that narrative,” said the source. “It destroyed his image as a teller of the truth.”
The dagger was handed over last month by Attorney General Letitia James, who released a hard-hitting report that said the state Department of Health underreported the number of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes by up to 50 percent.
What fueled the flames further was the admission last week by Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, first reported by the New York Post, that the state postponed the release of the total death count in August for fear that the president Donald Trump used the information against Cuomo.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers are now reconsidering their decision to give Cuomo emergency powers to deal with the Covid-19 crisis.
Cuomo acknowledged on Monday that “things should have been done differently” and insisted that “lessons have been learned”.
“In retrospect, should we have given more priority to responding to requests for information? In my opinion, yes. And that is what created the void,” said Cuomo. “I just want to make sure that people know that these are the facts: everything that could have been done has been done.”
But Cuomo did not apologize.
A Democratic Party source said this was not only a missed opportunity for Cuomo, but it also gave more ammunition to Republicans still hurt that he stole Trump’s spotlight by giving daily briefings that drew a national audience and widespread praise.
“Andrew Cuomo presented a juxtaposition to President Trump during the pandemic, and many Americans felt that he was a master class in leadership and determination,” said a party source. “Many Americans sought answers from Governor Cuomo, not the president.”
But James’ report “completely undermines that narrative,” he said.
It is also beginning to reflect on the Cuomo research figures. Since November, his approval rating has dropped from 56% to 51%, according to a new survey by Siena College.
The polls found that the majority approved of Cuomo’s work in addressing the pandemic (61 percent) and gave him high marks for communicating with New Yorkers about the crisis (67 percent). But 55 percent of New Yorkers gave it a negative rating for reporting deaths in the Covid-19 nursing home.
Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Evan Stavisky, a longtime political consultant for The Parkside Group, said he didn’t think Cuomo needed to worry yet.
“New York is a very blue state, and New Yorkers are generally happy with the governor,” he said. “There is no human being exempt from guilt … but I think the reports of his death are very exaggerated.”
In addition, Democratic voters do not expect Cuomo to apologize.
“Does he have the right tone? He’s always had that style,” said Stavisky. “It is embedded in the perception that voters have of him. He is not going to suddenly change his style now. … At this point, I would rather be Andrew Cuomo than anyone else trying to challenge him.”
New York was hit hard in the early days of the pandemic and, until recently, the state led the country in Covid-19 deaths. It recorded 47,177 on Tuesday, second only to 47,277 deaths in California, according to the latest data from NBC News.
Most deaths in New York occurred in the early days of the pandemic, when public health officials were trying to find out how the coronavirus was spreading.
Cuomo was criticized for having waited until May to reverse a state policy that required long-term institutions to accept recovering patients who could still test positive for the virus.
Then Cuomo insisted that it was up to nursing homes to alert state health officials if they were not equipped to care for infected residents. And a report issued by the state in July attributed the more than 8,500 deaths of elderly people to employees who unwittingly infected residents.
James, who is also a Democrat, launched his investigation last spring after whistleblowers reported that residents testing positive for coronavirus were being “mixed up” with healthy residents, that nursing homes were not adequately testing workers for the virus and that they were making “sick employees continue to work and care for residents or face retaliation or dismissal”.
Soon, investigators began to notice discrepancies between the numbers of deaths in Covid-19 nursing homes they were seeing and the numbers reported by the State Department of Health controlled by Cuomo.
Dr. Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, insisted on a statement after James’ report went public that there was no “lower count”.
“The word ‘sub-count’ implies that there are more total fatalities than reported; this is factually wrong,” said Zucker. “The OAG report refers only to the count of people who were in nursing homes, but were transferred to hospitals and then died. OAG suggests that all should be counted as deaths in nursing homes and not in hospitals, although they died in hospitals. “
Within hours, Republicans led by State Representative Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump supporter, called for Cuomo and Zucker to step down.