12 FEBRUARY 25, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
A page out of the The Trumpian playbook
Andrew Cuomo has accomplished
much during
his 10+ years as governor,
from boosting reinvestment in
the Empire State to rebuilding
infrastructure.
But the scandal over the reporting
of COVID-19 deaths in nursing
homes across New York threatens
to be Cuomo’s Waterloo.
And like the scandal itself, that
downfall is largely self-made.
Last week, the governor admitted
that the administration failed state
lawmakers in delaying reporting
on COVID-19 nursing home deaths
while insisting that it complied with
the federal government’s request
for such data. He acknowledged
that it helped create an information
“void” that wound up being filled
with conspiracy theories and political
attacks from his opponents.
Cuomo’s admission did not come
with an apology, nor was it accompanied
by a commitment to allow
a full and impartial investigation.
The governor said his administration,
in his opinion, didn’t believe
“there’s anything to clear here.”
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been feuding with Assemblyman Ron Kim. QNS fi le photos
Much as we want to take him at
his word, we also believe in the old
Russian maxim that Ronald Reagan
made famous in America: “Trust,
but verify.”
What’s the harm, then, in Cuomo
expressing an openness to an
independent investigation of the
matter?
That admission and resistance
only led to further scrutiny over
the scandal from lawmakers like
Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim,
who has been critical of the governor’s
handling of nursing home
deaths since the spring — and who
was the subject of Cuomo’s wrath
on a conference call with reporters
last week.
Kim says the governor called him
at home last week and berated him
while demanding that he retract
his critical statements about the
withholding of nursing home data
— an accusation which Cuomo’s
senior adviser, Rich Azzopardi,
vehemently denied.
But then Mayor Bill de Blasio,
who has had a rivalry with Cuomo
almost from the start of his term at
City Hall, sprung to Kim’s defense
Monday on national television.
He condemned the governor’s behavior,
calling it “classic Andrew
Cuomo.”
Is this any way to run a state?
To have a governor at war with
lawmakers of his own party to
deflect from the problems in his
own house?
It’s downright Trumpian.
All throughout the pandemic, we
heard Cuomo reject the politics of
the former president. He was 100
percent correct in doing so.
How tragic that he now borrows
from Trump’s terrible playbook
when all New Yorkers want is accountability
and the truth.
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