As if New York Governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t have enough on his plate, new claims have emerged that he used state resources to give priority for COVID testing to his brother, Chris Cuomo, and others. One report stated that a state official was transported via a State Trooper vehicle to the home of Chris Cuomo in Southampton to collect a sample for testing in March of 2020.
The sample was then transported, by a state trooper, to the state testing lab in Albany, six hours away from Southampton, for testing. It wasn’t just Cuomo’s brother that received priority testing and special accommodations in this manner. Others who received special treatment, according to the allegations, when it came to COVID testing included:
- Cuomo’s mother
- One of Cuomo’s sisters
- Pat Foye (MTA chairman)
- Rick Cotton (Port Authority executive director)
- State legislators and their staff
- Reporters
- State workers and their families
The Times Union also reported that health officials were told to prioritize the testing of these “select people” over others waiting for testing. Some of these family members and political affiliates were tested multiple times.
Despite these allegations, Cuomo maintains that, in the early days of the pandemic, many people were receiving testing in their homes, especially those displaying symptoms of COVID-19. Others have dismissed the allegations completely as “insincere efforts to rewrite the past.”
One thing it does indicate in light of other recent revelations about Cuomo’s nature for bullying and intimidation is that it appears Cuomo has an issue with abusing his authority and taking advantage of his position as the governor of New York.
Recent months have seen many women coming forward to accuse the Governor of sexual misconduct. In light of these allegations, Democratic lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerrold Nadler, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and others have called on Governor Cuomo to resign, stating that Governor Cuomo has “lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York.”
Governor Cuomo has continued to refuse to resign, citing this as “cancel culture” and stating that “People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth.”
Other allegations against Governor Cuomo extend to his decision to move COVID-positive patients into nursing homes causing new outbreaks which lead to thousands of deaths and then instructing his aides to alter the death reports to omit 9,250 deaths of nursing home residents. Cuomo received widespread GOP criticism after signing an order that would not allow nursing homes to turn away patients who had been treated for COVID-19 in hospitals. Republicans claimed this act caused a spike in nursing home residents with the virus who were not included in the data because they were eventually transferred to hospitals where they died.
It’s been a rough few months for the Governor as the allegations stack up and calls for his resignation increase from Republicans and Democrats alike.
