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Embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo received widespread mockery after claiming in CNN and MSNBC interviews that "incompetent government" was responsible for COVID deaths in his state.
Cuomo first made the claim in a friendly interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, insisting that former President Donald Trump and an incompetent federal response was to blame. Critics quickly noticed and asked whether Cuomo's decision to allow COVID-positive patients into nursing homes could have also been a factor.
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"This state, I’m very proud of what New Yorkers have done, because they have rallied. We were ambushed like no other state, Nicolle, and again, it was from federal incompetence," Cuomo said.
"Incompetent government kills people. More people died than needed to die in COVID. That’s the truth."
While Cuomo was attempting to pin the blame on the Trump administration, his comment was quickly mocked on social media as many people pointed out that many of New York’s coronavirus-related deaths occurred after the state's controversial March 2020 decision to issue a directive that required nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients released from hospitals.
The directive was reversed in May, when Cuomo said hospitals cannot send patients back to nursing homes unless they have tested negative. In the months that followed, Cuomo regularly took heat over the decision, though largely received a pass from the likes of CNN and MSNBC.
As of late summer, there were 6,600 deaths that occurred on nursing home properties, as reported by the Associated Press. Fox News’ Janice Dean, who has been an outspoken critic of Cuomo’s response to the pandemic after her in-laws died of the virus in their separate elder care facilities in New York, bashed the governor for his lack of self-awareness.
"He’s right. Too bad he doesn’t realize he’s talking about himself," Dean tweeted.
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Later on Tuesday, Cuomo appeared on liberal CNN, the network that is home to his little brother, Chris Cuomo, and repeated the same talking point about "incompetent government" killing people.
"Look, incompetent government can kill people, this is not a joke, and more people died here than needed to," Cuomo told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Many took to Twitter to mock Cuomo’s talking point:
Cuomo presumably noticed the widespread criticism, as he got more specific and specifically named Trump when he joined MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday morning to discuss plans to ramp up distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in New York
"The Trump administration announced eligibility, 65-plus, so you take a state like New York, that is seven million people are eligible for the vaccine, 65-plus, healthcare workers, essential workers, etc. Seven million people. We received 250,000 doses per week," Cuomo said. "So they constructed a tremendous supply and demand debacle."
Ruhle then asked how long it would take to vaccinate the entire Empire State if supply wasn’t an issue. Cuomo again bashed the Trump administration, saying the former president didn’t order enough doses in the first place.
None of the interviewers asked Cuomo about the nursing home decision or pushed back on Cuomo's narrative of blaming the Trump administration.
Cuomo has emerged as a hero of the liberal media during the pandemic, and he has even written a book and won an Emmy award since his coronavirus ravaged his state. Last year, the Cuomo siblings were frequently criticized when the governor appeared on his little brother’s CNN show on a regular basis but often joked around and teased each other instead of focusing on important issues related to coronavirus.
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The friendly treatment of Cuomo has been a stark contrast to the mainstream media’s coverage of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is often vilified for his state’s handling of the virus.
Fox News’ Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.