Now Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s trying to blame the messenger — that is, The Post — for New York’s nursing-home disaster.
His health commissioner, Howard Zucker, ordered homes to accept coronavirus-positive patients — indeed, to admit them without testing. Thousands are dead, and the order is now effectively rescinded, yet the gov still pretends it’s a non-story.
Wednesday, in Washington, he lashed out at Post reporter Ebony Bowden for asking if he’d discussed the home crisis with President Trump: “There are columnists who made this point at The Post who are 100 percent supportive of Donald Trump, and that’s fine — but then believe, you know, we have to kill all Democrats.”
And: “There are Republicans who are trying to make political hay out of this.”
At least two of the columnists who’ve hit hardest on the issue — Michael Goodwin and Bob McManus — were enrolled Democrats, last we checked. And while Goodwin is a Trump fan, you’ll search long to find McManus cheering the president.
Cuomo’s plainly talking motive because he doesn’t want to discuss the facts.
It’s the same with his earlier effort to blame the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — then accusing the White House of playing politics simply for noting that Zucker was not, in fact, just following CDC advice.
Anyway, other governors acted differently: Florida’s Ron DeSantis quickly moved to order nursing homes not to take in COVID-positive patients.
Then again, the gov won’t even admit to blaming Team Trump: “I never did that,” he told Bowden. Huh? “The state followed President Trump’s CDC guidance,” Cuomo told reporters just over a week ago.
Meanwhile, Democrats across New York have called for an independent probe of Team Cuomo’s handling of the homes.
Worst of all, the gov still claims he sees nothing wrong with putting virus-positive patients into a place where he himself said the disease would spread “like wildfire.” Pathetic.