Janice Dean’s courageous battle to hold New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo
accountable for the thousands of deaths he caused by ordering New York nursing homes to accept COVID positive patients has suddenly gotten traction after a year of tweets and news conferences.
As the New York Post reported, her efforts finally bore fruit when state AG Letitia James reported on Jan. 28th that Cuomo had undercounted nursing-home deaths by more than 50 percent. Two weeks later, The Post obtained a recorded phone call when Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa confessed to legislators the governor’s team had withheld the data because a federal inquiry could use the numbers “against us.”
Thanks to James and a judge’s order in a Freedom of Information lawsuit, the 8,700 nursing-home deaths the state had reported suddenly grew to more than 15,000.
And in Albany, the open secret of Cuomo’s sexist vulgarity and “hands on” approach to managing female staff has suddenly burst into the light, as seven women have accused the governor of some form of sexual harassment or inappropriate touching.
One by one, seven women have made allegations against Cuomo. Although the details vary, Lindsey Boylan, Ana Liss, Karen Hinton, Anna Ruch, an unidentified woman and Jessica Bakeman, at great risk to their own reputations, each described Cuomo behaving in ways that are outrageous and, in some cases, perhaps illegal.
The latest, former statehouse reporter Jessica Bakeman wrote in a New York Magazine story, saying Cuomo touched her inappropriately while posing for a photograph. She believes it was intended to make her feel uncomfortable.
"It's not that Cuomo spares men in his orbit from his trademark bullying and demeaning behavior," Bakeman wrote. "But the way he bullies and demeans women is different."
A majority of state lawmakers have already called on Cuomo to resign, and more than half of New York's Democratic congressional members joined those calls Friday. Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Charles Schumer have called on Cuomo to resign; 16 out of 19 House Democrats in New York's delegation are also calling for him to step down.
"Confronting and overcoming the COVID crisis requires sure and steady leadership. We commend the brave actions of the individuals who have come forward with serious allegations of abuse and misconduct," New York's two U.S. senators said in a joint statement. "Due to the multiple, credible sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York. Governor Cuomo should resign."
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Grace Meng, Mondaire Jones, Jerry Nadler and Jamal Bowman all added their voices to the recent chorus demanding the governor step down amid sexual harassment allegations and the nursing home data scandal reported New York’s WABC-TV News.
All of this stuff has been known for at least a year, but Cuomo’s fall from grace has been as dramatic as it has been precipitous, which makes many observers wonder what triggered the assault on the previously impervious Democrat governor.
A short paragraph from a recent New York Post column by the esteemed political reporter Michael Goodwin offers an important if inadvertent clue:
Six weeks ago he [Cuomo] was riding high, feted by the media and Hollywood, headed for a fourth term and perhaps the presidency. Then twin scandals began to emerge, and now he is surrounded by serious accusations that appear insurmountable.
Much as we respect Janice Dean’s indominable fight to expose Cuomo’s incompetence and malfeasance that killed her in-laws and at least 15,000 other elderly New Yorkers, and much as we empathize with the women who were subjected to Cuomo’s unwanted touching and other demeaning behavior, we wonder why Cuomo’s armor was pierced at this particular moment.
A year ago, Andrew Cuomo was seen as the one Democrat who could recapture the White House if Donald Trump won a second term, so pardon our cynicism, but we doubt it was the righteousness of their cause that allowed those women to pierce Andrew Cuomo’s cloak of invulnerability.
Remember, Joe Biden said he was going to be a one-term President, but he’s slipping fast and might not last four years. We think it was much more likely that Cuomo’s potential as a rival to Kamala Harris is what suddenly brought out the media scrutiny and the long knives of the Democratic Party to take out the one obvious challenger to Vice President Harris and thus clear the path for her to finish Joe Biden’s term and have two terms of her own to cement Democrats in their planned one-party rule of America.
Andrew Cuomo
Janice Dean
Nursing Home Deaths
COVID-19
Letitia James
Melissa DeRosa
Sexual harassment
Jessica Bakeman
Lindsey Boylan
Cuomo resign
2024 campaign
Kamala Harris