Former DOJ official assess Cuomo's legal challenges
John Yoo reveals what the New York governor avoided by resigning on 'Your World'
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned Tuesday after the serial and credible allegations of sexual misconduct had become impossible for Democrats – and his media fan club – to ignore.
But Cuomo's behavior throughout the coronavirus pandemic should remain front and center as the governor disappears in our rearview mirror. He did egregious things to New Yorkers while the liberal media treated him like a conquering king.
It cannot be forgotten.
Here is a list of some of the most outrageous things the governor did while in office:
The 2020 Nursing Home Order
In March of 2020, we knew very little about COVID-19. The two things we knew for certain were that the elderly were most susceptible to the virus and that COVID spread most in crowded areas, which is why we were told to lock down in our homes.
NY GOV. CUOMO RESIGNS AMID SEXUAL HARASSMENT SCANDAL
That’s why even 17 months later the governor’s directive of March 25, 2020, makes so little sense. The underlined section of the document read, "No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19."
COVID-19 ravaged nursing homes because of this directive. More than 15,000 people died in nursing homes in New York State.
The Cover-up
By April 20, 2020, Cuomo was saying he was unaware nursing homes were forced to accept COVID-positive patients. But three days later, he was back to making threats and demands:
"They [the nursing homes] don’t have a right to object. That is the rule and that is the regulation, and they have to comply with that. If they can’t do it, we’ll put them in a facility that can do it."
At the same time, the Cuomo administration introduced a unique way of counting nursing home deaths – not being done by other states – so as to obscure the impact of the deadly directive. Nursing home deaths were only counted if the death occurred inside the nursing home. If the patient who contracted COVID in a nursing home wound up dying in the hospital or en route to the hospital, the death was not counted as a "nursing home" death.
The rules just don’t seem to apply to the Cuomos. The governor’s behavior with women was an extension of that idea: the rules were for someone else.
In January of 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report finding deaths were undercounted by about 50%.
Cuomo’s aide, Melissa DeRosa, who resigned just two days before Cuomo announced he would be stepping down, should be remembered for the eventual apology she issued for this cover-up.
That apology was not offered to families of the deceased or to all New Yorkers but only to their political allies. And the apology wasn’t for what the administration had done wrong but for how it might have been politically inconvenient to the legislators.
"I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans," she said.
Other COVID-era scandals
When tests were scarce at the start of the pandemic, Gov. Cuomo had state troopers drive state health officials to conduct COVID-tests for his friends and family, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. Chris, for his part, had broken quarantine while actually sick with the virus and later staged an absurd show of re-emerging from his basement.
Chris had also interviewed the governor several times on his CNN show, asking him "hard-hitting" questions like whether Andrew considers himself an attractive person. Mixed in with the nonsense, though, Chris would ask the governor real questions, such as asking if the Trump administration would be sending coronavirus funding to New York State.
This clown-nose-on, clown-nose-off approach led CNN’S viewers to believe they were watching journalism. They were not.
In March, Chris apologized for advising his brother through the misconduct allegations and admitted his doing so was a problem for CNN:
"When my brother’s situation became turbulent, being looped into calls with other friends of his, and advisers that did include some of his staff, I understand why that was a problem for CNN. It will not happen again."
But yet the Washington Post reported this week that Chris was still advising his brother. The rules just don’t seem to apply to the Cuomos.
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The governor’s behavior with women was an extension of that idea: the rules were for someone else.
Rarely seen in a mask, the governor pushed for masking everywhere during the pandemic. He told New Yorkers not to see their families on Thanksgiving and then planned to see his own.
He was in charge of the state’s schools and he bristled when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a decision on schools without consulting him. That is until it was time to do the work to get the schools open and then they were not under his purview after all.
He hurt New York and New Yorkers again and again with his brutish behavior.
The day of Cuomo’s resignation, journalist Ronan Farrow broke a story "on a possibly illegal call Gov. Cuomo made to the Obama White House in 2014, railing against the U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was investigating corruption in New York."
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It sounds like something Gov. Andrew Cuomo would do – and has done – while pretending to care about New Yorkers.
Yes, it was a sexual misconduct scandal that brought down the governor, but all the other scandals should have done so just the same.
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