Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, whose mother-in-law and father-in-law died of COVID in a nursing home along with thousands of other New York seniors, attended a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday in DC where former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was grilled over his administration’s handling of the outbreak. Dean, a frequent Cuomo critic, shares her thoughts here on his appearance, as told to Post statehouse reporter Vaughn Golden.
Tuesday’s hearing was more of the same — more of what we saw when the reports started coming out about then-Gov. Cuomo putting COVID-positive patients in nursing homes and the questions started.
Instead of showing remorse or apologizing to families, he blamed others, taking no responsibility at all.
I’m grateful for the subcommittee because now there’s all sorts of documentation.
There’s paperwork.
There’s evidence that he lied and denied and should be held accountable.
DC has done more work than Albany has ever done.
To be quite honest with you, it’s embarrassing for Albany because DC is doing the work New York should have been doing the whole time.
The fact that the subcommittee has to subpoena Gov. Hochul for important documents and information just tells you it’s sort of a continuation of the Cuomo administration — it’s more of the same.
Instead of being forthcoming and transparent and wanting to get to the bottom of things, it’s still about hiding and denying and lying.
But I’m really proud of the committee’s work.
It’s proven a lot of things that we all suspected: that COVID-positive patients were put into nursing homes.
Thousands of them.
There was a report put out that was written by the state’s executive chamber and Cuomo to try to rid himself of all of his guilt.
But there were text messages and documents out of his administration saying, do we go forward and admit our mistake?
Because this was a huge mistake.
And he never admitted to any of that.
So the evidence was there.
And he was there with his lawyers who were passing him notes, which should tell you that he has to be very careful about what he says because of lawsuits.
He really has no remorse.
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I’ve said from the very beginning, had he called families, had he apologized, had he said he made a mistake and he will spend the rest of his career righting his wrong, we wouldn’t be here today.
He is chasing that $5 million book deal instead of saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry there are bodies piling up outside of nursing homes and you couldn’t see your loved one.”
He couldn’t even look us in the face.
There were many times the subcommittee asked him to take a moment to look at the faces of the families that have lost loved ones, and he never did that.
That told me he would never, ever apologize or be remorseful, and he’s really incapable of that.
Six months ago, a year ago, or even two years ago I would have said I don’t think I’ll ever get the answers and closure I’m looking for.
But the fact that we’re here today and there’s a document out there with more investigations pending, like Chairman Brad Wenstrup told us: This doesn’t end here.
They’re still going to continue and put out a new document, an after-action review, which again, New York has not done. So the fact that we’re relying on Washington, DC, to put out an after-action review for New York state — how pathetic that is.
But I’m pleased with the findings because for a lot of the things we were advocating for, a lot of the things we were talking about and worried about, the proof is there. There are documents there, and that’s undeniable.
