“When I stream his presser on the governor’s website—every day around 11:30 a.m., complete with a PowerPoint presentation—I feel comforted. It makes me feel alive. I feel protected. I feel… butterflies,” wrote Jezebel writer Rebecca Fishbein back in March 2020.
Fishbein was not the only person who fell in love with Fishbein. Members of the media class lavished the same fanfare normally reserved for Jonas Brothers or Backstreet Boys on New York’s Queens-born governor. This was during the COVID-19 epidemic that decimated New York City. The sound of cacerolazoApplause and applause would be heard each night at 7:15 p.m. to thank “essential” workers. Apprehensive, pajama-clad New Yorkers would tune in to Gov. Andrew Cuomo would listen to the midday briefings of Governor Andrew Cuomo, seeking comfort amid growing anxiety. Headlines both reflected their unease and regaled us with details about “How Coronavirus Made Andrew Cuomo America’s Governor,” “How Cuomo…Became the Politician of the Moment,” “Why We Are Crushing on Andrew Cuomo Right Now,” and “How Andrew Cuomo Became the Coronavirus Trump Antidote.”
This spawned a new term, the Cuomosexual, used to describe those who were enamored not just with Cuomo’s personality and old New York accent, but also with the idea that someone within the halls of power was willing to spar with then–President Donald Trump and serve as a counterweight against the president’s worrisome COVID-19 callousness. “Forget bodyguardsCuomo stated, noting his disgust at Trump’s behavior. The governor said that Trump should have an army, even if it meant he would walk down New York’s streets.
Cuomo’s fault was that Cuomo’s media circle created a culture of personality around him, blinding them to his flaws much like Trumpists. Cuomo had the opportunity to misuse his power and implement bad policies, which ultimately resulted in many people’s death.
It all started on March 25, 2020, the day then–Governor Cuomo issued a directive forcing nursing homes in the state to accept recovering COVID patients who’d been released from hospitals to make room for incoming invalids. Nearly 9,000 victims were released from hospitals and transferred to residential care homes. Experts believe that many of those who entered the state without proper isolation and testing were at fault for the spread of the virus among vulnerable populations.
Cuomo overturned this directive on May 10. Nursing homes were required to admit only residents who have tested positive for COVID. Cuomo’s administration was already doing the worst: It had concealed the deaths of nearly 4,000 New Yorkers and miscounted by 40 percent. The state first reported only deaths from Covid-19 in nursing homes. However, it was later made aware of the fact that many more people had been transferred to hospitals. The New York TimesThe January data collection. (This is out of line with almost every state’s data collection, for the record.
It was not SimplyIt was not a miscount. Reports surfaced that officials knew they were concealing correct numbers in an effort to keep their face clean after the controversial nursing home directive, which had been extensively scrutinized for its deadly policies. The Cuomo government’s explanation for all of this was shockingly weak. They were afraid that Trump would find out about them and make the matter “a big political football,” claimed top Cuomo aides.
The governor issued a directive to residents of residential facilities for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities that did not require them to conduct proper isolation protocols and testing. It was difficult to comprehend the loss of two relatives members, especially after learning that the governor had issued a directive for symptomatic persons to return to their homes. Danielle Platt Lewis, Danielle’s daughter, told me that it was a “horrible experience” that our family went through when they lost two aunts who were living in Long Island group homes to COVID. A third person shared with me that he wish he could have moved his relatives who are now deceased to another country.
According to Michael Wasserman of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine president, “There’s never been any doubt in my mind” that COVID-19 patients were sent into nursing homes with inadequate staffing and resources. This led to an increase in transmission, according the Associated Press. Letitia James (New York Attorney General) launched a five-month investigation of the Cuomo administration. It concluded that some residents had been put at higher risk by the governor’s actions.
Even worse, Cuomo had many other options where COVID-positive people could be sent to get treated. This would have been a way for them to reduce their spread within residential areas. It was the USNS ComfortThe remained largely empty of the military hospital ship.
Andrew Cuomo’s best-seller author resignation was not due to that. The sexual harassment and retaliation of one other person, as well as the nine state employees who perpetrated it, were what eventually drove Andrew Cuomo. After the third or fourth accuser came forward, the fawning media turned on him, and his ouster looked…suddenly possible. His misconduct was investigated by state lawmakers, who began to explore impeachment.
Cuomo had something to offer everyone, and his fall from grace in summer was rapid. To make his memoir self-professing, he forced his staff to violate state ethics rules. Overly strict vaccine-queue regulations were set that caused some doctors to discard precious doses in favor of getting the most shots possible. He secured special treatment during times of limited testing and early phases of the pandemic for family members as well as VIPs.
Let’s now talk about these family members. Chris Cuomo’s brother was a CNN anchor. This made him the most popular softball interviewer during the early pandemic. When the shit hit the fan, the elder Cuomo was under fire over the two scandals of nursing home deaths, and claims of sexual harassment, Chris used his journalistic connections to discredit the accusers.
A journalist is not qualified to conduct opposition research to strengthen a politician’s position. CNN could send the message to viewers that journalism ethics is only for small people by keeping Cuomo in the job and on air, Submitted AtlanticDavid Graham is the man responsible for the firing that took place just weeks ago. Although it was right to make the call at the end, CNN could have woken up much earlier or managed the conflict better than trying to control it 20 months later.
Bad politicians can be stopped by an oppositional and aggressive press made up of individuals from various ideologies. As the Cuomo case shows, too many journalists are asleep at the wheel.
The governor is clearly not the savior he claimed to be. He was always just another standard-issue corrupt, self-serving, handsy politician in a long dynastic line of them, and New Yorkers might’ve embarrassed themselves less—and made it harder for Cuomo to abuse his power—if they’d been sufficiently skeptical.
You can also use it as one ELLEWriter put it this way: “I Can’t Believe That I’ve Ever Called myself ‘Cuomosexual’.”
Goodbye Cuomos Reason.com first published the post Goodbye, Cuomos!