Andrew Cuomo (still) has much to answer for

Couldn’t blame you for missing it, with all the news this week. Disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo went to Washington to testify about nursing home deaths in New York during early in the pandemic. The MAGA panel tried to make him look bad. He tried to blame Trump. Here’s the full testimony. Here’s a news report before the hearing. Here’s Cuomo trying to lawyer his way out of it. And here’s a news report after the hearing.

It’s been a while. You probably remember that Cuomo resigned – but you may not remember why. Disgraced former governor. We say “disgraced.” But do you remember why?

There were allegations of sexual harassment, verbal and physical. That’s what most people remember.

And then allegations that he had Executive staff (people working for the state of New York) work on his book about how brilliantly he fought the pandemic. This was a pretty serious ethics violation, but the ethics panel itself had problems, and all its decisions were overturned. In the end, Andy pocketed over $5 million, much of it the fruit of the labor of government employees, doing their boss’ private work. Fewer people remember that. But proven corruption?

There was also what a jerk he was to people around him. That’s not why he resigned. But it is, when his world seemed like it was about to crumble, so many people who knew him well just watched it happen, and smirked.

But then there was this. At the start of the pandemic, when everything was a mess, patients were being discharged from the hospital, alive. Cuomo had assumed emergency powers. And he ordered that elderly patients, out of the hospital, go back to their nursing homes (the lawyers will say I got the details wrong. Let them). He sent thousands back, and infected thousands more. At some point that spring, if New York Nursing Homes were the 51st state, they would have been the state with the worst death rate in the country. It was horrible.

Perhaps worse, as the first wave of the pandemic subsided, Cuomo realized how bad this looked, and juiced the numbers to make it look like fewer died in nursing homes. He made a mistake in March, and compounded it by “lying with numbers” that summer.

Here’s a nursing home scandal time line (from Alessandra Biaggi, but I reprinted it). What’s missing is at whose behest Cuomo jiggered the policy. Stefanik (see below) suggests that it may have been at the request of the Greater New York Hospital Association.

He can be disgraced for harassment, for assault, for corruption, for mismanagement with fatal consequences, and for coverup. It doesn’t have to be one. They can all be true.

So the Republican house panel calls him in. It’s all about COVID and nursing homes in New York. They are vile. It’s all political. They try to show that Cuomo messed up. Hmm. They are vile and political. Slime. But on the other hand, they are right, Cuomo messed up, and then compounded it.

Cuomo responds by claiming he did nothing wrong. And blaming Trump. Well, yes, Trump was horrible. I saw the news conferences. “One day it will all go away” Trump lied. But Cuomo did nothing wrong? Pants on fire.

It’s easy to forget the details. Cuomo seemed so smart next to Trump (and de Blasio? meh) Here’s what I wrote about them then. Cuomo seemed smart and competent in comparison. In comparison with Trump and de Blasio. Talk about a low bar.

But Cuomo? Dishonest. Braggart. Loudmouth. Bully. Remember when Cuomo took away our spring break (and Mulgrew supported him)? Remember when Cuomo said he would never close schools? Jerk. Before he realized he’d messed up on nursing homes, he said, facing the camera, and addressing himself to parents “You will explain to them. Grandma and Grandpa will die.” No, he was no genius, no hero.

Trump can be an incompetent liar. And Cuomo can be a mismanaging jerk. Both can be true.

And as far as COVID – Trump’s response was abysmal. The US still has more COVID deaths than any other country. He blathered nonsense, and worse. But Cuomo, for his poise, left New York with the 7th highest case rate and 11th highest death rates in the country, trailing a handful of smaller, mostly southern and Appalachian states.

North Country representative Elyse Stefanik, a real slimeball, asked Cuomo to apologize to New Yorkers in the back of the chamber who lost parents and grandparents during the spring of 2020. He declined.

Stefanik is a slimeball. But Cuomo still has a lot to answer for.