Joe Concha: Cuomo nursing home scandal now has a 'follow-the-money-angle'

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Concha: Cuomo nursing home scandal has 'follow-the-money' angle

FOX News contributor and The Hill media columnist joins 'America Reports' with reaction to bombshell report

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nursing home scandal now has a "follow-the-money" angle, Fox News contributor and The Hill media columnist Joe Concha told "America Reports" Friday.

The New York Times reported late Thursday that the Democrat's top aides removed a tally of how many nursing home residents had died in the coronavirus pandemic from a report circulated by state health officials in June. 

The Times report noted that the "extraordinary intervention" by Cuomo's administration came as the governor was beginning to write his book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic."

"I never thought that we would have a 'follow-the-money' kind of angle in this story like we se in so many scandals," Concha told host John Roberts. "But when you look at what Governor Cuomo got paid as an advance -- $783,000 by [Crown Publishing, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House] ... that's a pretty damning thing when you think about the kind of money that was involved here."

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Concha added that the reported alterations to the report came at a time when Cuomo was enjoying massive popularity.

"He had approval ratings overall of around 70%, the highest in his career. So yeah, the right time to write a book and the wrong time to have bad news about nursing homes come out."

Concha went on to say that the latest reports by the Times and The Wall Street Journal is "devastating for the governor who is ... fighting on several fronts, not just the nursing home scandal, which is the biggest story, but those claims of sexual harassment by three women."

Concha also criticized President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their silence on the various controversies surrounding the New York governor.

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"Since Kamala Harris was chosen as Joe Biden’s running mate, she hasn’t had any press conferences," Concha said.

"I want to hear [Biden in-person] condemn Andrew Cuomo or say whatever he has to say about an investigation, [like] letting it play out. As we talked about yesterday, he’s the first president in 100 years not to hold a solo press conference in the first five weeks after taking office."