New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating whether the Cuomo administration illegally obscured statistics concerning covid-19 nursing home deaths. If that proves to be James’s conclusion, this will be a case in which the offense and the coverup are both very bad indeed ,one a blunder of deadly proportions, the other a possible crime.
Seven women have gone public with descriptions of creepy behavior — unwanted touching, leering looks, sexually loaded commentary , for which the governor was forced to apologize, although he kept explaining that it was “unintentional.” It’s all of a pattern, and the pattern has been enough to inspire a bunch of New York Democrats to call for his resignation, including Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Now there’s a third scandal, and this one might make the bully governor wish he had heeded Mizner’s advice. When the first wave of the pandemic was inundating New York and testing capacity was overwhelmed, Cuomo arranged access to coronavirus tests for his family and certain friends. This is the sort of thing that happens often but never looks good — special favors for the powerful and well-connected. Most elected officials have some version of privilege in their story: an airline upgrade, a backstage pass, a seat in a stadium suite. When it’s leaked at the moment of greatest vulnerability, you can assume the official is not surrounded by friends at all.