By Wes Walker
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has no problem taking credit for things others did that went well or redirecting blame for things that he did that went badly.
As an example of the latter, take his now-infamous executive order mandating that elderly patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 be sent or returned to nursing homes. It didn’t require a crystal ball to predict what would happen. Transferring infectious patients to a facility populated by people with compromised immune systems is like chain-smoking in a fireworks factory. The question is not whether disaster will result but when.
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Ultimately, “Cuomo’s Folly” resulted in some 5,000 deaths. When confronted with the disastrous nature of his actions, the governor rationalized that people in nursing homes are going to die of COVID “despite whatever [sic] you do.” Several days later he was back in front of the cameras defending his deadly policy. The day after that, he claimed he was merely “following orders” handed down from the federal government. (RELATED: Chris Cuomo has yet to ask his brother about NY nursing home deaths. Here are 9 questions he asked instead)
Which brings us to his latest: He is trying to hide the trail of breadcrumbs that lead so many needless deaths back to him. As Fox News notes:
New York officials have scrubbed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 25 order requiring nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients from the state health department website — even as Cuomo’s office insists that the order, which has been linked to thousands of nursing home deaths, remains in effect.
The web page that once contained the order now directs to a page indicating that the file is “not found.” The archive indicates that the deletion occurred sometime after May 5, around the time that criticism over New York’s nursing home fatalities intensified.
A copy of the page saved by the Internet archive Wayback Machine, however, shows that Cuomo’s order stated: “No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs [Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
Many in the media are speculating that Cuomo has designs on the White House. Indeed, many liberals, enamored of his daily coronavirus press briefings, say they’re ready to vote for him should he somehow manage to enter the current campaign race. Will Democrats manage to bury Cuomo’s horrendous record on this and other initiatives he has been behind?
Cross posted in altered form at ClashDaily
