As expected, the left is beginning to attack their own. Mayor Bill de Blasio backed up New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim following a report that Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently threatened him during a heated phone call, warning “you have not seen my wrath.”
Earlier this month, Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa admitted on a conference call that their administration withheld nursing home death numbers in order to avoid possible consequences from the Justice Department or “look bad” by then-President Donald Trump.
The administration hid nearly 1,900 NYC nursing home deaths alone. The latest figures have pushed the total nursing home death count up by 53%, but the true death toll could be twice as high as the 6,400 officially reported.
And to think Democrats rewarded @NYGovCuomo with an Emmy and book deal. https://t.co/ZX5L0c2g2N
— American Conservatives (@AmConservatives) February 19, 2021
“There clearly needs to be a full investigation. We’re talking about thousands of people who were lost, our seniors, our elders, families that still don’t know the truth, and questions need to be answered to make sure nothing like this happens again. There absolutely needs to be a full investigation,” de Blasio said.
The phone call was made a day after the bombshell report was released. Kim told MSNBC Cuomo called him at 8 p.m. when he was about to bathe his kids and demanded him to lie. Wanted Kim to issue a statement saying that “Melissa DeRosa said there was a federal investigation and they had to deal with that first.”
“And for 10 minutes he berated me, he yelled at me, he told me that my career would be over, he’s been biting his tongue for months against me, and I had tonight — not tomorrow — tonight to issue a new statement, essentially asking me to lie,” Kim said.
He recalls hearing Cuomo says “I can tell the whole world what a bad person you are and you will be finished.” He asked Kim if he was an honorable man before threatening that he “will be destroyed” if he didn’t issue the statement.
Rich Azzopardi, a Cuomo spokesman, accused Kim of lying about the conversation and denied that threats were ever exchanged. De Blasio told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the threatening phone call with Kim was a sad thing but called it “classic Andrew Cuomo.” He explained that a lot of people in New York State have probably received similar phone calls from the governor.
“The bullying is nothing new. I believe Ron Kim and it’s very, very sad. No public servant, no person who is telling the truth, should be treated that way. The threats, the belittling, the demand that someone change their statement right that moment — many, many times I’ve heard that and I know a lot of other people in the state that have heard that.”
De Blasio added that he admires Kim for coming forward, especially since his uncle died of COVID-19 in a nursing home, and that he was trying to raise real concerns for people grieving loved ones.
De Blasio is doing what he can to cover his own back after quietly following Cuomo’s order with no objections. The radical left has no rules or objections unless caught. Then everyone turns on you.
