Brutal montage shows liberal media's obsession with Gov. Cuomo: 'He's everything Trump isn't'

A brutal new mashup from the Media Research Center shows prominent media figures gushing over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., so enthusiastically last year, one even says he would repeat Cuomo's advice on coronavirus to his own children.

Mainstream and liberal media figures like CNN's Brian Stelter, MSNBC's Joy Reid, and MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace are featured in the montage, and the praise has not aged well as Cuomo faces heat from both sides of the aisle over his coronavirus nursing home policy and accusations that he covered up the death count from his own directive.

"Dealing with hardship actually makes you stronger," Stelter said in one clip. "That's what Governor Cuomo said earlier today. That's what I'm going to go teach my kids right now at home."

FLASHBACK: MEDIA FAWNED OVER CUOMO'S 'LEADERSHIP' DURING COVID AS NY NURSING HOME SCANDAL BREWED

Much of the praise of Cuomo last year was framed as a contrast to the Donald Trump White House, in particular for his daily press conferences about the mounting crisis. Cuomo won a daytime Emmy award for his troubles.

Wallace, a former GOP flack who reinvented herself as an enthusiastic booster of Democrats, said Cuomo was "everything Trump isn't," calling him "honest, direct, brave." In a friendly interview with Joe Biden last year, Wallace called Cuomo "one of the heroes on the front lines."

"Maybe Trump is just a little bit mad that Governor Cuomo has become a kind of acting president," Reid said, a sentiment also shared by MSNBC's John Heilemann.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes declared Cuomo was living in "actual" reality, in contrast to then-President Trump, and CNN commentator Carl Bernstein, on a panel with disgraced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, said Cuomo was providing "real leadership" that Trump could not provide.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said Cuomo had become a "national leader," and Stelter said he had provided "remarkable" leadership while never dispensing "false hope."

The montage only featured one clip of CNN's Chris Cuomo, the governor's younger brother, who admitted he didn't have objectivity during their numerous interviews. The elder Cuomo was floated by his brother and others as a possible presidential candidate at the outset of the pandemic.

The video could have included the younger Cuomo telling his brother, "I'm wowed by what you did." 

Other past examples included MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing hailing Cuomo as a "leader in calling for science-based ways to fight this coronavirus."

FLASHBACK: CNN'S CHRIS CUOMO GOOFED AROUND WITH BROTHER, FAILED TO ASK GOVERNOR ABOUT NY NURSING HOME DEATHS

Her colleague, "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough, claimed, "Even lifelong Republicans tell me, they look at Cuomo and they're like, 'God, now there's a leader.'"

Gov. Cuomo is on the defensive following the report from state Attorney General Letitia Games that the state may have undercounted nursing home coronavirus deaths by as much as 50 percent.

"A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes," he said on Friday. "New York state, we’re only about 28 percent — only — but we’re below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes."

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"But who cares — 33 [percent], 29 [percent] — died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.