New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the gift that keeps on giving – for Empire State Republicans.
Cuomo has been taking fire for weeks for the scandal of COVID-19 nursing home deaths, although the national media ignored the story until it was no longer possible. The scandal is now under investigation by the state attorney general, herself a left-wing Democrat who has already indicated Cuomo fudged nursing home death totals.
Instead, the media wanted to spotlight Cuomo’s other scandal: his slobbish, caddish, even buffoonish treatment of women – which itself has prompted calls for Cuomo’s resignation from Democrats.
Now, The Washington Post, presumably believing that a wounded Cuomo is no longer of service to liberals, especially with Donald Trump now relaxing in Mar-a-Lago, piles on Cuomo with news that the governor played favorites by seeing that precious COVID-fighting assets were used on his family and friends first.
“As the coronavirus pandemic swept through New York early last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration arranged for his family members and other well-connected figures to have special access to state-administered coronavirus tests, dispatching a top state doctor and other state health officials to their homes,” the Post reported, citing three people who claimed, “direct knowledge” of the effort.
“A state lab immediately processed the results of those who were tested, the people said, even as average New Yorkers were struggling to get tested in the early days of the pandemic because of a scarcity of resources. Initially, the lab was capable of running only several hundred tests a day for a state with 19 million residents.”
The Post described the tests as “exceedingly rare” in the early stages of the pandemic. And when Cuomo’s friends and family were involved the tests were rushed – sometimes by state troopers – to the lab to obtain results.
“Among those who benefited from the priority testing program was Cuomo’s brother Chris, who was diagnosed with covid-19 in late March of 2020. The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top New York Department of Health doctor, who visited his Hamptons home to collect samples from him and his family.”
In addition, “The same doctor who tested Chris Cuomo, Eleanor Adams, now a top adviser to the state health commissioner, also was enlisted to test multiple other Cuomo family members,” the Post noted.
Cuomo’s spokesman declined to comment on Cuomo’s family getting preferential treatment, but did argue that the state helped plenty of everyday New Yorkers.
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