Democratic leaders of the New York State Senate are moving to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of his emergency powers as the embattled executive continues to suffer fallout over his handling of the pandemic. Democrats have finally begun to stand up to their tyrannical after mounding pressure from public outcry reached a feverpitch.
Fourteen New York Democrats are seeking to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of emergency powers granted to him throughout the COVID-19 pandemic after a top aide revealed his administration withheld data about nursing home deaths in New York from Justice Department investigators.
“Without exception, the New York State Constitution calls for the Legislature to govern as a co-equal branch of government. While COVID-19 has tested the limits of our people and state– and, early during the pandemic, required the government to restructure decision making to render rapid, necessary public health judgements– it is clear that the expanded emergency powers granted to the Governor are no longer appropriate,” a joint statement by the state Senators said.
Democratic lawmakers have hammered Cuomo in the days since a top administration aide reportedly admitted that the governor’s team hid health data on seniors over fear that it could spark a federal investigation. Cuomo later denied that his administration hid any data.
Stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers granted during the COVID-19 outbreak would be a stunning rebuke of the governor’s handling of the pandemic by his party allies in the state legislature, according to The New York Times. A vote on the motion to strip the governor of emergency authority could come as soon as next week.
Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), whose uncle died from COVID-19, bluntly said that “all of it is BS” and a cover-up.
“They could have given us the information back in May and June of last year. They chose not to,” Kim said after hearing Cuomo was blaming the Department of Justice probe for delays in releasing the accurate coronavirus death tally of nursing home residents.
Monday, Cuomo made a mockery of the accusation. In a press conference where he was supposed to take responsibility, the dictator declared it everyone else’s fault. Cuomo blames nursing home staff and visitors for carrying in the virus, adding that 98% of the homes already had Covid before his fatal decision to dump unwell patients in with the horribly vulnerable residents. He alluded that it was Trump’s fault and was just a step away from blaming the decision on his staff.
New York state Senate Republican Rob Ortt released the following statement after Cuomo’s press conference.
“Governor Cuomo’s failure to apologize this afternoon was a shocking slap in the face to the New Yorkers who have lost loved ones to COVID-19,” he wrote. “His inability to take blame for the hurt inflicted on our families by his administration’s relentless disinformation campaign is wrong on every level. The governor seems incapable of comprehending that it was his Administration at fault, and nobody else. He continues to shift the blame anywhere but upon himself and his top officials. The governor’s major excuse for the failure of his Administration to provide accurate, timely information to the public was, ‘We were busy.’ This is a pathetic response coming from a man who had the time to publish and promote a book about his pandemic response while New Yorkers clamored for the truth.”
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