Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose COVID-19 mandate is said to have killed thousands of New York seniors, will face gales of protest if he runs for New York City mayor, weathercaster Janice Dean — who said her in-laws were among the victims of Cuomo’s “deadly leadership” — predicted Wednesday.
“People are going to be reminded of the thousands of elderly that we lost and his March 25 order and his terrible behavior towards women. That is going to come up again,” Dean exclusively told The Post in a telephone interview.
A Cuomo ally has talked to possible donors about creating an independent-expenditure committee for a mayoral run, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Dean said a Cuomo run for City Hall would be “very disappointing.”
“It’s one thing to run for office and be a leader, but you’re not a great leader if you don’t realize that you have to talk to the people who you are trying to represent and even the ones that are very disappointed in you,” she said.
Dean, senior meteorologist at Fox News Channel, is marking a fourth holiday season without her in-laws, Michael and Dolores Newman, who she says died in 2020 when Cuomo’s March 25 executive order allowing hospitals to send COVID-19-infected seniors to long-term care facilities — which were forced to accept them — took effect. It’s estimated that mandate caused 9,000 excess COVID deaths.
The former three-term governor — hounded from office in August 2021 after massive sexual-harassment allegations led the Legislature’s leaders to seek Cuomo’s removal — is reportedly on the verge of announcing a bid to replace embattled Mayor Eric Adams.
The Newmans, parents to Dean’s husband, Sean, and grandparents to the couple’s two children, succumbed to the virus in the spring of that year while each was housed in a New York care facility.
“It’s been four years of trying to get answers, accountability, apologies, investigations, answers for the thousands of elderly that died,” Dean said. “This is Thanksgiving, and we’re missing two seats at the table again, and it’s frustrating to know that he is going to run for office without having to really answer questions about his deadly leadership, about his failed leadership.”
Even with Dean in the gallery at a Sept. 10 House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing in Washington where Cuomo was grilled over his pandemic actions, she said the so-called “Luv Gov” couldn’t manage an apology.
“He knew I was there, and he had the chance to turn around and say he was sorry, and he never did. He never looked any of us in the eye,” she said.
She believes “all Andrew Cuomo knows is running for office” — “His every breath is trying to be in power.”
That motivation makes her feel sorry for the ex-politico.
“If that’s the only way that you feel important in your life, then that’s a sad thing,” Dean said.
