It seems justice is finally going to be served to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. State Attorney General Letitia James’ report detailing Cuomo’s record as a serial sex-harasser delivered what may be the death blow to his time in office, forcing the desperate Love Gov to resign or suffer the indignity of impeachment.
Yes, it’s great to watch a man whose thuggish character was apparent throughout his tenure finally being called to account. But there’s something troubling about the way Cuomo is being hustled out of office: Obscured amid the details about his gross behavior and the way his aides and liberal feminist enablers tried to discredit the victims is the fact that Cuomo remains responsible for the deaths of perhaps thousands of elderly New Yorkers during the early months of the pandemic — and for his administration’s ongoing, illegal coverup of the numbers highlighting that fact.
Even as critics like Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean courageously spoke out about the issue, the governor spent most of 2020 as a national idol, venerated by the mainstream media for what President Joe Biden called the “gold standard” for coronavirus crisis management. The nation was riveted by his daily press briefings; he actually won a special Emmy for them.
It was not until James issued a report in January stating Cuomo underestimated the number of nursing-home deaths by as much as 50 percent that he began to feel any real heat. His problems worsened when an aide admitted his staff had deliberately hidden the true number of deaths to shield Team Cuomo from scrutiny. And, as The Post noted last week, the coverup hasn’t even ended yet, as the state continues to stall on releasing documents about his COVID record.
Does it matter which issue applies the coup de grâce, so long as the story ends with Cuomo being sent packing in disgrace?
It does. As awful as his treatment of the 11 accusers may be, the needless additional deaths of hundreds or thousands in nursing homes must be considered an even worse crime. If the governor is allowed to skate for his infamous March 25, 2020, order forcing nursing homes to take in COVID patients, and his subsequent coverup, then no one should pretend justice is being done. The families of those who died as a result of his arrogant stupidity and willful ignorance deserve closure for what happened to their loved ones.
But also consider: The mainstream press’ willingness throughout 2020 to give Cuomo a pass for his nursing-home massacre was no accident. That his former media cheering section and fellow Democrats are prepared to use the sexual-harassment charges as the sole reason for ousting him has a truly terrible stink.
Truth is, elevating Cuomo as a COVID hero was part of an effort to contrast his supposed brilliance with former President Donald Trump’s alleged incompetence. The deaths of tens of thousands of nursing-home patients in states like New York, New Jersey and Michigan as a result of decisions by Democratic governors helped create the sense of panic and establish the narrative that Trump was responsible for a national disaster.
Correcting that record, even after Trump’s defeat in November, is problematic for liberals since it not only makes clear that (despite the ex-prez’s terrible messaging about the virus and other missteps) what happened a year ago was not primarily Trump’s fault. Dems would love to shove Cuomo’s responsibility for this catastrophe down an Orwellian memory hole, even as he is himself dispatched, now that his survival no longer serves his party’s political interests.
Indeed, doing so lets the left continue to blame pandemic deaths on Republicans, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who might have made mistakes too but at least protected the elderly in his state’s nursing homes — as Cuomo should have.
New York mustn’t allow Cuomo to evade accountability for his nursing-home fiasco by focusing exclusively on the sexual-harassment charges. That’s a partisan strategy meant not only to bury an injustice but to help Democrats hold power — even as a despicable governor loses his grip on it.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS.org. Twitter: @jonathans_tobin