On Sunday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who recently released a book about how to show leadership but whose state government had a policy in place that returned elderly people with the coronavirus COVID-19 to nursing homes, stated, “The key is to be strong and secure enough to admit your mistakes and admit your shortcomings — don’t get defensive. Denying the mistake only assures repeating the mistake. We have made mistakes during COVID; I wrote a book on the lessons to be learned from the COVID crisis.”
Cuomo’s remarks about being “strong and secure enough to admit your mistakes and admit your shortcomings” elicited blowback from those who noted the apparent hypocrisy.
Fox News’ meteorologist Janice Dean’s husband tragically lost both his parents, who were residents of assisted living facilities or nursing homes in New York, to COVID-19. Previously, she slammed Cuomo’s new book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic,” tweeting, “Profiting on the deaths of over 30,000 New Yorkers.” Seeing Cuomo’s new statement, she fired back, “This guy is a real piece of work.”
This guy is a real piece of work. https://t.co/FvYHl1P5Fo
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) November 16, 2020
New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari blistered Cuomo: “Several thousand grandmas and grandpas, killed as a result of [Cuomo’s] senicide order, couldn’t be reached for comment.”
Several thousand grandmas and grandpas, killed as a result of Cuo's senicide order, couldn't be reached for comment. https://t.co/MxibYtPDyF
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) November 16, 2020
Radio host Vince Coglianese: “Gov. Covid has some thoughts.”
Gov. Covid has some thoughts:
"The key is to be strong and secure enough to admit your mistakes and admit your shortcomings — don't get defensive."https://t.co/v3bpcFBo4o
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) November 16, 2020
Cuomo used his speech to claim that COVID-19 “showed us the ugliness and flaws deep down in our society,” pontificating:
I think of COVID as low-tide for America. Do you know how when you stand on the beach and you look out on the water and the tide is high, and all you see is the surface of the water and the waves, and everything looks nice and beautiful. But you stand at the same point at low tide when the water goes out and the sea bottom is revealed and you see rocks and you see debris and you see the ugliness the water was covering: COVID was low-tide in America and it showed us the ugliness and flaws deep down in our society. And if we are smart and if we are secure we must now acknowledge the ugliness and correct it as we go forward.
Then he turned to attacking the Trump administration:
COVID low-tide showed the lack of trust in the federal government; we have a vaccine on the way, truly great news, but polls say 50% of the American people say they would not take the vaccine if it were available today because they don’t trust the way this federal government has politicized the process.
So New York and other states, seven in total, will simultaneously review the vaccine approval with independent medical experts so people know it’s safe. Undocumented people distrust the federal government and believe they may use the vaccine process to identify them for deportation. New York must make sure that doesn’t happen; we must restore trust in government because a vaccine will only work if people trust the government enough to take it and that has to be our mission here in the state of New York.
NY Gov. Cuomo: "The key is to be strong and secure enough to admit your mistakes and admit your shortcomings — don't get defensive." pic.twitter.com/cOWDbdSJj4
— The Hill (@thehill) November 16, 2020