If Democrats are known for anything, it is not taking responsibility for their actions. Just last week, top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa confessed that Gov. Cuomo’s office withheld COVID-19 nursing home numbers from New York state lawmakers because they would afraid of Trump tweeting negatively about Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic. After months of insisting that the state is not underreporting, Gov Cuomo now admits that the nursing home data delay was a “mistake” but that a ‘toxic political environment’ was also to blame. Of course, it’s never his fault.
In his first press conference since the bombshell report, Gov. Cuomo admitted that they should’ve moved sooner to release relevant COVID-19 data but claimed that “there’s nothing to investigate.” He never directly addressed DeRosa’s remarks in which she admitted “we froze” over whether to come clean to the Legislature and the public in the face of a Justice Department inquiry.
The Associated Press found that nearly 15,000 long-term care patients died of COVID-19 at nursing homes, up from the roughly 8,500 deaths previously documented. For months, Cuomo and his aides lied to the public and said they were ‘comprehensive’ and ‘transparent’ in their responses to the DOJ, as well as focusing resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout. When asked if he felt the need to apologize, his response talked about the spread of conspiracy theories instead. He said that there are “political positions” and there are “facts.”
“We made a mistake in creating the void. We made a mistake in creating the void when we didn’t provide information, it allowed press people, cynics, politicians to fill a void,” Cuomo said.
Since the wake of underreported numbers, there has been a bipartisan move to strip Gov. Cuomo of his COVID-19 emergency powers. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, among local lawmakers, have called for Cuomo’s removal of authority to enact orders and alter laws without legislative approval.
Gov. Cuomo pushed back against calls to strip his emergency power and responded that they have “nothing to do with nursing homes.” He said legislators can reverse any action he takes, but have yet to do so since the pandemic began. He argued that his team had simply “paused” a state request for data in order to focus on fulfilling the Justice Department’s request, but that they “told the Senate” that they were also trying to manage a pandemic. So was everyone else.
Several lawmakers, including New York State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, pushed back on that claim. “No, @NYGovCuomo, you did not tell the *entire* Senate or Assembly that there was a DOJ investigation, as the reason why you didn’t share the nursing home numbers. I found out about a DOJ investigation with the rest of NY’ers in the @nypost story Thursday night,” she wrote.
Democrats and their double standards will always find a way to point the finger at Trump – even when he’s no longer President.
