I'd like to recount how my governor, @andrewcuomo, has led New York during the pandemic:
1. Didn't act while the virus initially took hold & made New York the global epicenter of the virus. propublica.org/article/two-co…
2. He then one-upped himself, forcing nursing homes (you know, the places filled with fragile, elderly people who are most likely to die from COVID) to take in COVID patients. More than 6,700 nursing home residents died of COVID in those facilities. apnews.com/article/virus-…
3. Cuomo proceeded to lie about what happened after he required the homes take COVID-positive patients back from hospitals. cnn.com/2020/10/01/pol…
4. Next, Cuomo put out his administration's own report of his failures, fully exonerating him. Because of its glaring omissions and dishonesty, it prompted more controversy. propublica.org/article/andrew…
5. Could it get even worse? You bet.
In May, Cuomo gave immunity—a liability shield—to nursing home & hospital execs who negligently got their patients killed by COVID. He removed the incentive for them to be more cautious.
6. Meanwhile, Cuomo was doing daily televised briefings about the COVID numbers. People liked them. So then Cuomo figured, mid-pandemic, he'd cash in and write a propaganda book about his success fighting it. Again: nothing about nursing home deaths. propublica.org/article/not-me…
7. He even got a fucking Emmy for his TV briefings. Oh well.
More recently, once the vaccine arrived in New York, Cuomo has refused to implement plans to have local health department administer it. County officials are furious. timesunion.com/news/article/N…
8. These county plans have been tested for months, sometimes years, and are meant to be implemented during times exactly like these. Instead, Cuomo is only allowing hospitals to administer vaccines. Remember all the campaign cash he's gotten from the hospital lobby? Yeah.
9. So, only hospitals can administer vaccines. Cuomo only allows them to go to health workers—no one else. And they're slow as hell. Tons of vaccines are just sitting there. Many will probably expire. But Cuomo won't let non-health workers get the vaccine. ktla.com/news/nationwor…
10. A few days later, vaccinations are still very behind. Surely Cuomo will let non-health workers—say, the elderly people he put at risk—get shots, right?
11. So who is Cuomo friends with? Who does he invite in to help coordinate health strategy? Guys like the CEO of this hospital system. nytimes.com/2021/01/05/nyr…
12. Andrew Cuomo is a very powerful, extremely corporate Democrat whose father was also governor. He worked w/ Republicans and renegade Democrats to stymie progressive state legislation. Sadly, he won his last two elections vs. progressive women easily. This is who NY wanted.
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We need a comprehensive, honest reckoning of how we got to this moment when a mob of people are willing to invade the Capitol to overturn the democratic process. While there are many different factors, a key one is the lengthy GOP campaign of lies about voter fraud.
This is a phenomenon that I and many other journalists have been tracking for years. Trump’s job as coup leader would have been more difficult w/o his party & numerous allied groups spreading propaganda about nonexistent fraud, suing against state voting laws, scaring their base.
For years the GOP, aided by outside legal & advocacy groups & think tanks, have fearmongered about allegedly fraudulent voters, attacking voting laws, passing voter ID bills, suing states to purge their voter rolls, even fighting things like high school civics programs.
It is baffling to me that people WHO WERE THE TARGETS OF THE INSURRECTION, LITERALLY THE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES WERE JUST AT RISK can possibly argue *against* holding the ringleader accountable. How are these people like this? How?
Interesting how the Republican politicians who inspired the deadly, fascist coup attempt spent the year trying to get antifascists—the ones who challenge the types of people who ransacked the Capitol & killed a cop—classified as terrorists.
This is classic fascist propaganda tactics. You inspire violent acts on behalf of your leader and then blame them on the opposing side. Cruz went to far as to sponsor the bill & hold a hearing on nonexistent antifa violence. All of this is meant to exonerate the actual criminals.
Cruz & other Republicans (& rightwing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation) have embraced and promoted white nationalists’ biggest propagandist, Andy Ngo, whose job it is to invent antifa violence as his extremist allies terrorize communities.
.@RepublicanAGs, which spent the year spewing unhinged propaganda about allegedly violent anarchists & BLM protesters to scare voters, played a key role in organizing yesterday's march to the Capitol, which ended w/ the deadly coup attempt. documented.net/2021/01/republ…
@RepublicanAGs They funded a robocall: "We will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal."
.@NYGovCuomo scrapped the statewide plan to administer the vaccine at local health departments, only allowing distribution at hospitals, and now he's yelling at & threatening the hospitals for being slow. Such an awful person & governor.
@NYGovCuomo It's unconscionable that you have a plan in place, a strategy you've already tested, counties are begging you to greenlight it, and you're refusing. timesunion.com/news/article/N…
Remember that after condemning thousands of seniors to their deaths in nursing homes, then shielding the execs from liability, Cuomo wrote a book about his COVID success & received an Emmy award. Great meritocracy we've got here.