Ep 373 ｜ Uncovering Andrew Cuomo's COVID Corruption ｜ Guest： Janice Dean
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
170.25505
Summary
Janice Dean is the Chief Meteorologist for Fox News and has been speaking out against the corruption of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the past year. In this episode, Janice and I talk about why she has been so vocal in her opposition to Cuomo's policies and how they are hurting the elderly.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I am
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back in the studio. It should sound better if you're watching on YouTube. It should look
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better. We had crazy weather last week as you guys know and as we have talked about,
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but now it's all good. It's all good. It's beautiful weather here now and I get to be back
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in the studio talking to you guys and a much better set than the one that I had last week.
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So I'm so excited about today's episode. I know I say that all the time and I really am excited
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about every episode that I do, but today I am talking to a particularly awesome guest and that
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is Janice Dean. She is the chief meteorologist for Fox News and she typically doesn't wade into
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politics. But over the past year, she has been speaking out against the corruption of Andrew
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Cuomo and how his corruption has negatively affected the elderly population in New York
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because of the COVID policies that he put in place that put them more at risk. And she personally
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has suffered. Unfortunately, her family has suffered from some of his mandates and she has been
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beating this drum so consistently over the past year. And I'm just so thankful and admiring of
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her bravery. And so we're going to have a conversation with her at the last half or the last
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bit of this episode. She has an amazing story. She's so articulate and she's so passionate about this.
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And you're also going to leave that conversation feeling uplifted and encouraged because that's just
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who she is. That's what she does. Before we start that conversation, though, I'm going to kind of set
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us up. I want to talk about what's been happening in New York and some of these policies by Andrew
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Cuomo, the media coverage of it, and then compare and contrast that to the media coverage of Ron
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DeSantis. And this is important because as thinking people, and in particular as Christians who care
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about the truth and who care about things like bias, who care about, for example, the sin of
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partiality and who want to try to elevate the truth and seek the truth as much as we can as fallible
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human beings, we need to care about media bias. Really, whether it goes one way or another. You
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guys know I've said many times, I am a conservative. I'm a conservative Christian. And so I'm going to always
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come from that perspective. You usually know kind of what conclusions I am going to come to.
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And I don't hide that from you guys. I don't pretend to be this middle-of-the-road journalist
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who is never going to tell you my opinion. This is an opinion commentary show. There seems to be
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some confusion sometimes in the reviews that I get. It literally says in the description that I have a
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Christian conservative worldview, which means that I'm never going to try to hide the truth from you,
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or I'm never going to try to be hypocritical or have double standards or be duplicitous or deceitful
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or anything like that. But it does mean that I have a particular perspective that is going to color
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my commentary. Now, when it comes to the news, when it comes to journalism, they purport to be,
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they pretend to be unbiased. They say that they're just bringing us the facts, that it has nothing to
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do with their political leanings, that they really are these middle-of-the-road people. But I think we've
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all kind of had a good laugh at that, especially over the past few years. I have no problem with bias.
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I have no problem with opinions, as long as you are honest about that, as long as you say,
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this is the perspective that I'm coming from. And as far as I know, every fact that I am giving you is
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absolutely true, but my conclusions are colored by a particular perspective. I have nothing wrong with
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that. But it's when the media pretend to be our arbiters of truth or the fact checkers on Facebook,
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these big tech companies, pretend to be our arbiters of truth, pretend to be the prison through
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which all reality or all experiences, all events must go for us to be able to draw or see right
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conclusions. That's when I have a problem, when I see such gross and disturbing bias from them in a way
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that completely obscures reality and the truth. And then it's up to people like me and you to dig
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through a million different stories to try to find what is actually real. And if you want to talk
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about why, one of the reasons why we're so polarized, there are many reasons, but one of the reasons why
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we're so polarized today is because it's just easier to read outlets and to watch people and to listen to
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people that affirm our biases. Because when we go to the other side, it's not like we're getting just
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a challenging perspective. We're getting what we feel like is an obscuring of the truth. So when I
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read MSNBC or when I watch MSNBC, it's not just that my opinions are challenged. It's that I feel
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that they are not telling the whole story. And I'm sure people feel that about outlets on the
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conservative side as well. So it can just get very difficult and people decide I'm not going to wade
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through the facts. I'm not going to dig through all the details. I am just going to believe every
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headline that comes my way that confirms my bias. And that's a problem. It takes a lot of work for
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us to kind of dig through everything to figure out what's going on. I'm going to try my best to do
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that today with Andrew Cuomo because there has not been fair media coverage of him because he's a
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Democrat and people like Andrew Cuomo. And he was kind of the foil to President Trump while President
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Trump was in office. President Trump was supposed to be like this jester or simultaneously a jester
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and, you know, the joker, I guess, this this evil, corrupt genius that was purposely trying to kill
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people of coronavirus while at the same time the media depicted him as this like clumsy fool who
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could never get anything right. And then we were supposed to look at Andrew Cuomo, the governor of
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New York, and see confidence, confidence. And we were supposed to see success. This is how you handle
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things. This is how you handle the virus. So he kind of just became Trump's arch nemesis. And he
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became the guy that the media looked to, to kind of, you know, set up on this platform or idolizes the
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hero of COVID response. And really, nothing could be further from the truth. And that's what we're going
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to talk about today in pursuit of reality and pursuit of the truth and pursuit of clarity, because
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that is always important. So let's do a little timeline. Let's back up a little bit. Start of
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COVID. It's almost been a year. We've almost had like a year anniversary to the start of COVID. I
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remember my last speaking engagement was March 6th before all of it happened. I went to LA and I
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remember being like mildly worried about shaking people's hands and hugging and things like that.
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And the people at the event that I that I was speaking at thought that I was like crazy, but I just
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didn't know at that point. I thought this had like a 25% death rate. And I was worried that if I shook
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everyone's hand or hugged people that I would get sick. It was actually in LA. Then I came home,
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everything shut down. It's almost been a year since then, which is just crazy. But at the start of
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COVID, March 25th, 2020, the Cuomo administration in New York, quote, barred nursing homes from refusing
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people just because they have COVID-19. So at the rollout of his response to COVID, we knew by the
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way that the most vulnerable community, the most vulnerable people to coronavirus and the most
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likely to end up in the hospital and the most likely die. We knew that that was the elderly
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population. The Cuomo administration, I don't know the reasoning. I don't understand the logic behind it,
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but they decided that they were going to allow COVID positive nursing home patients back into
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nursing homes. Then in July 2020, Cuomo's office conducted an internal report that found that this
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March 25th order sent thousands of recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes. That was
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and that was not a significant factor in the outbreak. Of course, this report that came out
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that Cuomo's office issued obviously got a lot of scrutiny and a lot of criticism because of flawed
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methodology. And there were selective stats that sidestepped the actual impact of the March 25th order,
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which actually uttered or ushered, we thought, in July 2020, more than 6,300 recovering virus patients
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into nursing homes at the height of the pandemic while they were still contagious. So Cuomo's office
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comes out in July 2020, says, oh, yeah, we did this, but it's, you know, it's not a big deal. It didn't
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really have an effect on anything. August 2020, Cuomo announced that he would be releasing a book
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in which he reflected on his experience with the pandemic so far and offered leadership advice
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and a glimpse into his relationship with then President Donald Trump. So he is just making the
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most of the popularity that he had gained in this pandemic and because of his response.
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Then in November 2020, there was an announcement that Cuomo would receive an international Emmy
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for his once-daily televised COVID-19 briefings, which informed and calmed the public, we were told.
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And then in January of 2021, Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, released a report
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describing how the governor's office actually undercounted the number of COVID-linked nursing
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home deaths by more than 50 percent. And, you know, we knew this. Janice Dean had been talking
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about this for a long time. We knew about the March order, even though Cuomo's office said
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in July, hey, this March order had nothing to do with anything. He became really defensive about it.
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He said, no, we're doing really well with nursing home deaths. We knew on the conservative side,
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this was a lie. We had been talking about this. We had been tweeting about this. We talked about this
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on this podcast, I think last April, how Cuomo had failed in his leadership in COVID response and the
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media was just completely gaslighting all of us. I mean, they were just completely brushing over any
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of his failures in order to present him as the competent leader in contrast with their arch enemy,
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President Trump. The New York Post reported that, quote, Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosso,
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admitted during a conference call with Democratic leaders that the administration
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hid unfavorable information about the state's nursing home COVID-19 deaths out of concern that it
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was going to be used against them. According to a Thursday report from the Associated Press,
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more than 9,000 recovering COVID patients in the Empire State were released from hospitals
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into nursing homes early in the pandemic under a controversial directive from Cuomo's administration.
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Now, we talked about, I think back in April, the possibility of why they decided to release these
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elderly patients early while they were still positive, while they were still contagious,
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back into nursing homes, thereby spreading this disease that is deadly for this population,
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like wildfire. And it probably has to do with Medicare reimbursements for hospitals, hospitals
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making sure that they are getting the reimbursements and the money they need. And the crazy thing is,
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is the policies that led up to this, the Medicare, Medicaid cuts that Cuomo was responsible for,
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I think, in November of 2019 also had something to do with this particular order and making sure that
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hospitals could get the reimbursements that they want. I'll make sure to link to that past episode
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because we have detailed just all of the incompetence and the failures of Andrew Cuomo that led up to his
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continued failures after after the pandemic started. Quote, the new number of 9056 recovering patients
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sent to hundreds of nursing homes is more than 40 percent higher than what the state health department
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previously released. And it raises new questions as to whether a March 25th directive from Governor
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Andrew Cuomo's administration helped spread sickness and death among residents, a charge the state
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of the state. Now, Trump had started tweeting about the mishandling by governors like Newsom,
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like Whitmer, like Phil Murphy, including Andrew Cuomo. And apparently Cuomo's office got very nervous
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about this. And that is why Melissa DeRosso, who works for Cuomo, said to the New York lawmakers on that
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conference call that, hey, we're worried about this. And look, this is why we misreported this stuff,
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or this is why we're not saying the truth about how many nursing home deaths there were, because
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we're worried about being scrutinized. She said, we weren't sure if there was going to be an
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investigation. And so Cuomo and his staff allegedly lied. The Washington Times asks a really good
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question. Why didn't Cuomo send these patients to the USNS Comfort or the Javits Center, which were set
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up by President Trump specifically to help New York, because it was thought that New York was going to
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have an overload of cases. And so you'll remember that giant ship that was off the coast of New York
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that President Trump made sure was there to help with the overflow. And also, Andrew Cuomo, as we
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talked about in a previous episode, had shut down a few hospitals in predominantly minority and
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predominantly poor areas in New York before any of this happened, which was part of why President
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Trump needed to send the ship. And so why didn't Andrew Cuomo, who said that they didn't even need
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the ship, send those COVID-positive patients to that ship rather than back into the nursing homes
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because he didn't want to give Trump credit? And the media didn't care either because they didn't
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want to give Trump credit. So for everyone on the left that calls anyone on the right a grandma killer
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because, hey, we care about businesses and we care about restaurants and we want people to be able
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to safely live their lives so they don't die by suicide and loneliness and poverty. Everyone on
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the left who has been pointing to the right is heartless. What did you have to say about any of
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this? Most people, nothing. Most of the people who call everyone on the right grandma killers had
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nothing to say about any of this when it was going on, just pointed fingers at President Trump as if all of
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this was within his jurisdiction rather than these state leaders. As you guys probably know, the New
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York state lockdown strategy was to basically close everything down. Andrew Cuomo was sued by
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a couple synagogues and I think Catholic dioceses in New York. We've talked about this on a previous
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episode, too. They won their case because he was discriminatory. The Supreme Court found
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in shutting down and restricting these religious institutions in various parts of the state in
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a way that he did not restrict other businesses. And so he has been very restrictive in closing down
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businesses and closing down the economy and making sure that schools stay shut down. Of course,
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there's been a struggle between state leaders and teachers unions who want to keep the schools shut
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down. But he has been as restrictive as possible. And yet there have been 46,346 deaths as of right
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now, according to The New York Times. And now let's compare that to a state like Florida, who is led by
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a Republican that the media just happens to absolutely hate. Florida has had 29,905 deaths and Florida has
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2 million more people than New York does and a bigger elderly population. And yet the restaurants have been
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mostly open. The schools have been mostly open. The businesses have been mostly open. People in Florida have
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pretty much been able to lead regular lives. California also has a lower per capita death rate than New York.
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And we can go through the highest death rates in the country. Number one, New York. Number two,
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or sorry, number one, New Jersey. Number two, New York. Number three, Massachusetts. Number four,
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Rhode Island. Way down the list, Texas. And then way down the list more. Number 28 is Florida. And yet,
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if you read the news, you would think that Florida is leading the country, nay, leading the world in deaths
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and hospitalizations. And that's just not true. New York has the second highest number of hospitalizations,
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according to the Atlantic, just looking at the raw number after California, which again,
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California has millions of more people than New York. And so it makes sense that their hospitalization
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number would be higher. But New York still has the second highest number of hospitalizations more than
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Florida, which again has more people than New York. And yet the press coverage for Andrew Cuomo,
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after all of this corruption, after the quantified incompetence that we have seen from his
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leadership, we have gotten headlines like this over the past year. This is from
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our good friend, Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post. No one does it like Andrew Cuomo.
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Quote, remarkable success in lowering the rates of infection, hospitalization, and deaths in New York
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meant an end to Democratic Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's daily news conferences, which are really
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tutorials on managing the crisis, sprinkled with philosophical observations and tales from the
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Cuomo family. How cute. U.S. News, how coronavirus made Andrew Cuomo America's governor. New York's
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brash leader has risen to the occasion as the nation looks for a comforting leader during the public
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health crisis brought on by coronavirus. And then in May, CNN says Andrew Cuomo may be the single most
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popular politician in America right now. And sadly, that was probably true. A lot of people are duped by
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what they see in the media. Rolling Stone said in April, Andrew Cuomo takes charge. The governor of
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New York found himself at the center of a deadly crisis. His response has helped guide the nation.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer, Andrew Cuomo for president? Joe Biden should make it happen. What?
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Newsday, DNC should go with Cuomo for president. He is the only elected official in the United States
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today who has fully demonstrated the leadership, toughness, management, skill,
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and humanity than meeting the coronavirus pandemic demands. Think about, think about all of the
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statistics, all of the facts that I just shared with you about his leadership and his decisions
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and what has happened in New York. And remember these headlines also when you listen to my conversation
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with Janice Dean and some of just the disturbing details that have been revealed about Cuomo as a person
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and his leadership. Now, let's compare that glowing coverage that we have seen of Cuomo despite
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all of the craziness that has come out from his office. Compare that coverage to the coverage
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of Ron DeSantis, who is the Republican governor of Florida. Washington Post in December, even by
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Florida standards, Governor Ron DeSantis is a COVID-19 catastrophe. CNN, putting politics in front of
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lives. DeSantis faces criticism over Florida's COVID-19 response. Miami Herald, to what depths has
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Governor DeSantis sunk to please President Trump's secrecy, deception, and even arrayed Tampa Bay
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Times. DeSantis has betrayed the people he serves. And now listen to this recent article in MSNBC
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that describes Ron DeSantis' vaccine rollout, distribution, and also just his leadership during
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the time of COVID in general. Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ignored federal guidelines and
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prioritized getting senior citizens, one of Florida's most potent voting blocs, vaccinated
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first. Okay, let me read that again. Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ignored federal guidelines
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and prioritized getting senior citizens, the gall, one of Florida's most potent voting blocs, vaccinated
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first. It also happens to be the population most likely to die from coronavirus. How dare Ron DeSantis?
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When Holocaust survivors and Cuban survivors of the Bay of Pigs debacle, revered members of two other
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key Florida voting blocs, got their first shots. DeSantis made sure he was there for the news conferences,
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says MSNBC. And now the governor stands accused of using the COVID-19 vaccine to reward powerful
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political supporters and developers by setting up pop-up vaccination sites in plant communities they
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developed and where GOP voters predominate. So the media narrative has been that Ron DeSantis is
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sliding specifically minority communities, poor communities in favor of affluent white communities
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in getting the vaccines so he can reward them for their support and ensure their vote next go around.
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Now there is absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever. And by the way, let us remember
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that the numbers do not show in any way that Ron DeSantis has had any kind of worse response to this
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than someone like Andrew Cuomo. There's no numerical evidence of that whatsoever. And yet the media wants
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to jump up this outrage. They're worried about Ron DeSantis running in 2024. They're worried about how
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popular he is among Republicans. They're worried about showing GOP leadership as something that can be
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competent, something that can be good, something that can be compassionate. And so they are trying their
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darndest to bring him down. National Review wrote about this, and I thought that they did a really good
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uncovering of what's actually happening in Florida. So let me read you an excerpt from this article.
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The efforts to vaccinate people in underserved Florida communities were largely ignored by most
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mainstream media outlets this past week. During the three-day pop-up event, so that was an event that
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Governor DeSantis organized, he has been organizing these vaccination events around the state,
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3,000 doses of vaccine were administered in a planned community with a large number of seniors
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called Lakewood Ranch in Manatee County, just south of St. Petersburg. Democrats charged that DeSantis
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was playing politics with vaccine distribution and favoring white, wealthy Republicans. State
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Representative Michelle Rayner accused the governor of prioritizing affluent neighborhoods
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over our underserved population. But that's not actually true. This article goes on to say,
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in early February, DeSantis teamed with former NFL star in Kwan Bolden to distribute vaccines in Bolden's
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hometown of Pahokee, an impoverished farming community. More than 60% of Pahokee's population
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is black, according to the U.S. Census reports. Because the city is about 30 miles from the nearest
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Publix grocery store and one of the state's primary vaccination distributors, most of the area's
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seniors had little access to the vaccine, according to a report by the Palm Beach Post. And so DeSantis
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made sure that this predominantly minority community who doesn't typically have access
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to vaccine distribution, that they were able to get the vaccine when and how they needed to get it.
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According to the Post, DeSantis was contacted about Pahokee by the state's lottery secretary,
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John Davis, another former Pahokee football standout who had been talking with Bolden. Among the 51 churches
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and recreation centers where the state has had vaccination events are Holy Temple Missionary
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Baptist Church, in a poor majority black city in Miami-Dade County, a recreation center in
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downtown Fort Myers, and at least two churches in the overwhelmingly Hispanic city of Hialeah in
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Miami-Dade. Last week, the Division of Emergency Management established a state-supported vaccination
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site at the historically black Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, the state capital.
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DeSantis' administration has also launched a program to deliver vaccines to homebound seniors,
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starting with Holocaust survivors and World War II and Korean War veterans. But apparently that's bad.
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People are very angry at DeSantis for going to these events, for taking press photos,
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for thanking these veterans, even though this is far in a way a better plan and a more efficient and
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effective rollout and a more effective and efficient way to reach these predominantly minority
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communities than what we're seeing in blue states. And the Spectator actually, there's an article in
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the Spectator that is detailing this and is making that very argument that red states are doing better
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with vaccine rollout than Democratic states are. This is what the Spectator says. West Virginia has one
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of the lowest per capita incomes in the United States, along with some of the highest levels of
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chronic illnesses. But it has been among the most prolific in protecting its residents against
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the novel coronavirus. The governor has closely managed the process of determining who gets priority
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while giving counties far less leeway than in other states to make their own rules. That ethos has helped
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propel his state to a position that much wealthier and healthier states can only envy. West Virginia,
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the article says, is no outlier. As of this writing, the CDC reports that under the leadership of
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Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has delivered more full vaccines than have perennial
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blue states like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon,
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and of course, California. Only three blue states have managed to outpace Florida on vaccine
00:25:38.640
distribution per 100,000 residents, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Vermont. Despite the obvious
00:25:44.660
success of Florida's program, Democrats and the media have relentlessly criticized Governor DeSantis for his
00:25:49.340
handling of the vaccinations. The Sunshine State is home to a large percentage of people over 65,
00:25:54.680
yet his critics insist that his policy of prioritizing seniors is politically motivated.
00:25:59.860
The real problem, of course, is that his state is outperforming blue states, and that is correct.
00:26:06.120
And they also point out how Alaska really has done the best when it comes to vaccine distribution,
00:26:11.980
even though there are a lot of topographical challenges when it comes to Alaska. So it says
00:26:20.400
this, bigger than Texas, California, and Montana combined, Alaska is a vast, sparsely populated,
00:26:26.320
and largely roadless state with only a handful of main arteries. To distribute vaccines, doctors and nurses
00:26:32.900
statewide have had to rely on a wide range of transportation modes. Alaska's vaccine process is
00:26:38.580
distinct from other states in that it is built on an existing immunization program. So that means
00:26:44.020
that they were prepared. They already had a program in place, and all they had to do is build on it.
00:26:48.280
And yet, we are not getting, we are not seeing praise for these red states. Instead, we are being told
00:26:55.540
that DeSantis should be called Death Santis. And we have been told for the past year that we need to
00:27:00.840
be hailing Andrew Cuomo as a hero. Only recently has the media decided, you know what, okay, Trump lost,
00:27:07.200
and so it's okay for us to kind of criticize him for these things. AOC finally came out and said,
00:27:13.140
yeah, you know, I support an investigation. Okay. Well, AOC apparently has been too busy going down
00:27:20.180
to Texas and raising money for Texas to care about her own constituents for the past year,
00:27:28.800
who have no doubt been negatively affected by Cuomo's lack of leadership and the corruption that has been
00:27:36.360
obvious to most people for months now. She didn't say anything about that. She could have been calling
00:27:42.180
for an investigation or resignation a long time ago. But now, when it's okay to do so, like when
00:27:48.320
Democrats have the White House, when they have Congress, that's when the Democratic media, that's
00:27:53.840
when Democratic politicians now feel safe to be able to come out and to criticize people like Andrew
00:28:01.080
Cuomo. And look, I'm glad that people are criticizing him. I'm glad that there are some in the media that are
00:28:06.100
writing about his corruption. I'm glad that there are Democratic politicians calling him out.
00:28:10.780
I did hear a theory the other day that I thought was an interesting theory, that the Democratic
00:28:15.500
establishment, and this is just a theory, and I don't have any, I don't say this on any authority
00:28:21.320
whatsoever. I just thought it was interesting, something that I heard on another podcast,
00:28:25.080
that apparently the Democratic establishment really wants Kamala for president in 2024. And they want to
00:28:31.760
ensure that she will win that election and that she will not lose a primary, considering she failed
00:28:37.520
so miserably in the Democratic primary last time, never polled above 1%. Like even in her own state,
00:28:44.540
she was struggling. So they know that she doesn't have widespread popularity, but they really want her
00:28:50.060
to become president because they believe that she is going to be able to, or she will be willing to push
00:28:54.920
through whatever policy, whatever agenda the Democratic establishment has. And so apparently
00:29:00.580
they want Kamala Harris to win in 2024. They don't want any strong contenders. And so they are trying
00:29:08.800
to elbow out people like Cuomo. They're trying to elbow out Gavin Newsom, anyone who might have their
00:29:15.820
sights set on the White House in 2024. I am hearing that the Democratic establishment may be trying to push
00:29:22.840
those contenders out so it will be easy for Kamala Harris to win in 2024. Who knows if that's true?
00:29:29.560
I thought that that was interesting. So that could be why all of the sudden, after the past year of
00:29:35.340
conservatives saying, hey, Cuomo is doing a bad job, many of these Democratic governors that are getting
00:29:40.600
credit are getting credit for no reason. They're doing a bad job. A lot of these Republican governors that are
00:29:46.140
doing really well are getting criticized, getting criticism for no reason. They're doing a good job.
00:29:51.200
We've been saying that for a year. And now you are kind of seeing a little acquiescence,
00:29:56.980
a little agreement from the Democratic media and from Democratic politicians, but only because they
00:30:01.540
believe that their power, at least for now, is safe. And so they can do these things. And maybe it has
00:30:08.180
something to do with 2024 as well. I'm not sure. So I just kind of wanted to give us plenty of context
00:30:14.220
in leading up to my conversation with Janice Dean to let us know what we're dealing with here,
00:30:18.680
the hefty hypocrisy that we're seeing, the deceitfulness and the duplicity coming from our
00:30:27.220
media in regards to this coverage. It just reminds us that we really have to dig if we really want to
00:30:32.160
know what's going on and to never get whipped up just by media headlines that we also and always have
00:30:39.200
to do more work to actually understand what is really going on and what the truth of the matter is.
00:30:45.620
Janice, thank you so much for joining me. I've been so excited to talk to you. Can you tell us,
00:30:56.620
for those who don't know, what has kind of inspired you or motivated you to call out Andrew Cuomo in the
00:31:03.980
way that you have for the past few months? It's been 10 months, almost a year. It's hard to believe it.
00:31:12.240
Um, and I think, you know, as well as most of the viewers on Fox and friends, I'm the meteorologist
00:31:19.660
on Fox news. And I've been that, that person for 17 years and I've never been a political person.
00:31:26.700
People don't know who I voted for. Um, I always say the only red and blue I see on a map for areas of low
00:31:33.580
pressure and high pressure. So to find myself in this, uh, political storm is not comfortable for
00:31:41.240
me, but the reason I am speaking out is because my husband's parents died of COVID, uh, in elder care
00:31:48.440
facilities. They were in separate elder care facilities. And going back in late March, um,
00:31:54.700
we lost his dad first. He was in a nursing home, a rehab center, because we were trying to get him in
00:31:59.940
better shape to join his mom D who was in an assisted living residence close to us here on
00:32:06.260
long Island. And this was a fairly recent move. Um, you know, they lived in a four story walk up in
00:32:12.420
Brooklyn for over 50 years. It was rent controlled. It was hard to get them to move over the last
00:32:18.280
several years and their health was failing them. We had aids that were going up to see them and take
00:32:23.580
care of them, but it was just turning out that we needed 24 hour care, especially with his dad who had
00:32:28.160
dementia. Right. And so his mom went on a tour with my husband to find a nice place close to us where
00:32:35.460
they would be taken care of. They would be in a double room. And, you know, as really just a few
00:32:41.740
months after we got that done, COVID happened and we were in quarantine. Uh, we were only able to really
00:32:51.060
contact them through the phone or talking to somebody that worked at their separate elder care
00:32:56.440
facility. And we didn't even know his dad was ill until late on a Saturday morning, we get a phone
00:33:02.540
call, uh, saying that his dad wasn't feeling well. And then three hours later, we get a phone call
00:33:08.440
saying he was dead. Wow. And we had no idea he was even sick. Um, obviously we knew that COVID was an
00:33:16.600
issue in New York because we were all in quarantine. I was at home. My kids were at home. Um, we didn't know
00:33:24.280
his dad had died from COVID until we saw his death certificate. And looking back, there was a red
00:33:31.880
flag, but we didn't know it at the time. Uh, we got a phone call probably a week or so before his dad
00:33:39.700
passed away saying that they were going to move him to a different floor so that they could allow for more
00:33:46.000
residents to come in. And when I look back now, I think that that was our first sign that there were
00:33:53.080
COVID positive patients being put into his nursing home. We don't know that for certain. Um, I can
00:33:59.120
only assume and hindsight, then his mom got sick two weeks later. And my husband had to tell his mom
00:34:06.880
that her husband had died. And obviously the worst thing he's ever had to do. She was heartbroken.
00:34:14.140
Um, she got sick. She was brought to the hospital and they diagnosed her with COVID two weeks later
00:34:20.240
and she died in the hospital. And my husband wasn't able to see her. Um, he got a call after
00:34:27.600
she passed away saying that he could come see her body through a glass window. Wow. Wow. So what have
00:34:37.000
you learned since then? Obviously I can't even imagine dealing with all of that and not being able to
00:34:43.180
mourn and to grieve and to honor their lives in the way that you typically would be able to in any kind
00:34:49.580
of normal year, but add on top of that kind of what you've learned about the Cuomo administration
00:34:55.440
and some of the, uh, very purposeful steps. It seems like they took to, um, to kind of make this
00:35:04.340
vulnerable population in nursing homes, even more vulnerable. What has it been like dealing with that?
00:35:09.880
What have you, what have you learned? What has that process been like for you?
00:35:13.720
We didn't know there was a mandate, an order to put COVID positive patients into nursing homes until
00:35:20.800
after they died. And I started seeing those reports and not seeing a lot of them. And then finding out
00:35:28.780
that my mother-in-law's number, because she died in the hospital was not counted towards the nursing
00:35:35.780
home deaths. So I started to see these bits and pieces on some of the news. The New York Post was doing
00:35:40.920
great reporting. Um, but certainly the mainstream media outside of Fox news was not reporting on this
00:35:47.140
at all. So in mid may, I talked to my husband about coming forward and talking about our story.
00:35:56.200
And he was, you know, he didn't want me to go public with it. Um, it was too personal. My husband is not
00:36:02.880
an on-air television personality. He's very private, but because we wasn't, we weren't seeing the news
00:36:10.480
reports. And when the governor was on television with his brother on CNN, it was like a joke,
00:36:17.160
right? There were no, there were no, there were no questions about the nursing home mandate that he
00:36:22.320
had in place for 46 days for March 25th to May 10th. Why was he putting COVID positive patients in a
00:36:29.340
nursing home? He knew that was going to be an issue. He was even quoted as saying it was like
00:36:34.540
fire through dry grass. So what were the origins of this March 25th order? So when I saw him on CNN
00:36:41.340
with the big cotton swabs and his brother, I decided it was, it was time to say something.
00:36:46.860
It was time to talk about my family, what happened and how thousands of families were going through the
00:36:53.740
same thing. And we couldn't have wakes their funerals. We couldn't see our loved ones to hold
00:36:58.680
them, to hold their hand. We weren't there. So that's when I decided it was, it was important
00:37:06.180
for me to tell my story and spread the word about what was happening inside nursing homes.
00:37:12.760
And I'm sure at first it, it may have felt like people weren't listening or it wasn't catching on
00:37:17.540
because we saw that he came out with his book in the fall and he was going to talk about, you know,
00:37:22.420
what a wonderful job he did and the importance of his effective leadership. And then he was
00:37:26.680
nominated for an Emmy for his daily updates. And so I'm sure there have been times over the past
00:37:33.300
10 months where you felt like, okay, is it even worth speaking out? Is anyone listening to me? Is
00:37:39.860
that kind of how it felt at least at some points when it seemed like it was just not getting through
00:37:45.000
to people? Absolutely. Every channel other than Fox, I would see him on CBS this morning, the NBC shows,
00:37:55.200
his MSNBC, the CNN program with his brother. I started getting really angry because they would
00:38:02.060
have him on for lengthy interviews and never ask him about the nursing home mandate. And then,
00:38:08.100
as you mentioned, there was this celebration of his leadership while thousands of people were dying in
00:38:13.620
New York. His leadership book, of course, was a New York Times bestseller. He had this really bizarre
00:38:19.740
poster that he came out before that, that he was selling with all of the things he loved about
00:38:24.440
himself. You know, his staff, a daughter's boyfriend hanging off the cliff. This was like,
00:38:30.320
this was a COVID mountain, essentially showing the cases in New York, how they peaked like a mountain,
00:38:37.140
and then how he was making sure that he was helping crush the curve or bring down those total numbers
00:38:44.160
and selling this COVID mountain poster. He also had a paper mache poster he was using in his
00:38:50.360
presentations to show how he had successfully brought that curve down. New York tough, you like
00:38:58.060
to say. And then the Emmy Award, it was just, it was like we were living in this alternate universe
00:39:03.580
that we were going through this grieving process. Thousands of other families were as well,
00:39:09.200
and no one was speaking up. And then there was some hearings here in New York in August to talk about
00:39:16.660
the nursing home issue in Albany. And I originally was asked to speak. Republican Assemblyman Kevin Byrne
00:39:27.020
asked if I would like to tell my family's story because they were talking about the nursing home mandate
00:39:33.160
and what was going on. And they had Howard Zucker, his health commissioner, talking to law
00:39:39.160
makers. And so I was going to tell my family's story. And then all of a sudden, on a Friday night,
00:39:44.180
my invitation must have got lost in the mail. They decided they were uncomfortable with me speaking
00:39:51.880
about my family. And what have you thought about Cuomo's reaction as some of these accusations have
00:39:59.720
been leveled to him in front of him? The press has started to ask him some of these, I'm sure,
00:40:05.320
uncomfortable questions. It seems like he's kind of gotten just a little defensive and shut them
00:40:11.320
down. Well, that's only happened recently. And that began with the AG's report. There have been
00:40:18.980
many investigations into this governor and the fact that he has been giving sort of false numbers in
00:40:26.500
terms of how many elderly died because New York was the only state that wasn't counting those that died
00:40:32.260
in the hospital. So I always sounded the alarm on that, that the statistics he was giving on
00:40:38.200
television when he was being asked about the nursing home issue was, oh, well, we're far behind other
00:40:44.340
states that lost seniors in nursing homes. We did a great job because he wasn't counting those in the
00:40:50.680
hospital. So there were reporters that had investigations through the FOIL Act. There was also a Justice
00:40:57.260
Department investigation through Bill Barr that they wanted to find out about the nursing home
00:41:04.300
issue. And that's when things started to sort of ramp up a little bit because we now know from Melissa
00:41:12.100
DeRosa, one of his top aides, she was apologizing to Democratic lawmakers a couple of weeks ago and
00:41:17.660
basically was on record admitting that they were covering up the numbers because they were afraid of the
00:41:23.780
DOJ investigation. And then more recently, our attorney general in New York, who is a Democrat,
00:41:30.320
Letitia James, conducted her own investigation into the nursing home issue. And I think that's when the
00:41:36.820
dam began to break, that a fellow Democrat, our attorney general here in New York, was doing her own
00:41:44.880
investigation and indeed saying that the numbers were undercounted by the thousands.
00:41:50.240
Wow. And what do you think is going to happen and how quickly? I know that you can't know that for
00:41:56.620
sure. And politics, of course, is messy. But do you kind of envision the dam continuing to break? Do you
00:42:03.420
envision the walls continuing to close in on him and him actually being held accountable for these
00:42:07.820
things? I hope so. When he has conducted some of his press conference more recently, he is on the
00:42:17.120
defensive and you can tell it. It looks like he's unraveling. You know, his lies are catching up to
00:42:22.560
him and people are starting to ask the question. And more and more lawmakers like Ron Kim, who is a
00:42:29.240
Democratic assemblyman, who who basically said, yes, I was in on that meeting. She did confess to covering
00:42:35.360
up the numbers and I have been bullied and threatened by this governor. So that has started that trickle down
00:42:41.360
effect that people are feeling a little bit more. Brave to to admit that this governor has been
00:42:49.820
bullying and harassing and threatening, not just for months, but for years. Right. I mean, you know,
00:42:58.400
if Bill de Blasio seems to have the upper hand against someone in conversations about good leadership,
00:43:04.900
then things then things must be really bad. Well, I hope that he's held accountable. Your hope would
00:43:09.920
be that he resigns. Correct. Well, no, I want a full investigation into him because I think a lot of
00:43:18.040
these charges could be criminal. Right. Truly, he he he needs to tell the whole truth and nothing but
00:43:25.040
the truth. So resignation. OK, no, I want an investigation. Yeah. Well, I'm so appreciative of
00:43:33.680
you and your husband. I know that it it could have been a lot easier for you to just say, you know what,
00:43:39.400
this is personal. I don't really want to deal with this publicly, but I know that there are so many
00:43:44.580
families who have gone through the same thing that you have, don't have the same platform that you do and
00:43:49.280
are very thankful for the way that you have pushed this and beat this drum. I, for one, really admire you
00:43:55.480
for your boldness. You've been told to watch your back, correct? And talking about this. Yeah. Early on, I
00:44:02.560
emailed with a person that knows the Cuomo family very well that told me, you know, that my cause is
00:44:12.560
is a good one and that this person was very sorry for my family's loss. But when it comes to Cuomo,
00:44:20.520
that I should watch my back. And I've also been, you know, not necessarily threatened, but talked down to
00:44:28.520
by some of his aides saying, well, she's just the weather girl. Yeah. You know, she's not a credible
00:44:34.280
source on anything except maybe the forecast. So they try to shame you that way and silence you.
00:44:39.900
But that only makes me want to speak louder. Well, good for you. And in the midst of all of this,
00:44:44.360
you have a new book, correct? Can you tell us about it? Oh, my goodness. Yes. The book,
00:44:50.020
I will tell you, it's called Make Your Own Sunshine. It comes out next week. And I am so proud of this
00:44:55.400
book. It's not about Cuomo. Yeah. It is about people being light in a time of darkness and writing
00:45:06.160
this book during the pandemic when we lost my husband's parents. It really did give me something
00:45:12.900
to look forward to and some some people to connect with during this really challenging moment. And so
00:45:19.480
when I started writing the book, I didn't realize I would be writing most of it during a pandemic.
00:45:23.640
Right. But I but I feel like it came into my life for a reason. And all of the chapters are about
00:45:30.920
just ordinary everyday people doing wonderful things for other people without really even wanting
00:45:38.380
to have that appreciation back to them. Just, you know, doing kind deeds, some of them just as simple as
00:45:47.440
paying for someone's coffee and the lineup to wonderful moments that are actually like a ripple
00:45:54.640
effect. It makes inspires others to do sort of the same thing or pass it along to someone else.
00:46:00.180
And that's what I call making your own sunshine, because sometimes in those very dark moments,
00:46:04.680
it's the people that come into your life and spread kindness that really shines a light. And and,
00:46:12.660
you know, you don't necessarily need that sunshine to have that that bright light in your in your life.
00:46:19.360
It could be just be someone trying to do something good.
00:46:23.400
Yes. Well, that sounds like the book that people need right now. I know a lot of people are feeling
00:46:27.480
burnt out with politics and the news and they just want some positivity and a reminder that we have
00:46:33.860
more in common than we don't. And so it sounds like this is the kind of book that people would
00:46:39.320
love and need to read right now. So I'm guessing you can get it anywhere books are sold starting next
00:46:44.880
week, correct? Yes, absolutely. You can preorder it. And, you know, certainly I, I would love to come
00:46:52.320
on and talk about it again and highlight some of these beautiful people that for sure that I was
00:46:56.360
able to talk about during in the book. And they certainly helped me get it get through a very dark
00:47:02.360
time in my life. So I'm so appreciative. Well, wonderful. Thank you so much. You are someone who
00:47:07.080
spreads sunshine, even when you were talking about all the craziness that's gone on in the last year,
00:47:13.320
even as you have been grieving, you have shared a lot of sunshine for a lot of people, not just this
00:47:18.480
past year, but over the many years that you have had this platform. So I'm very thankful. I know that
00:47:23.540
I will be praying for you in the midst of all of this. And I know my audience will be too. So
00:47:27.540
thank you so much for taking the time to come on. Well, thank you. And thank you to your audience. And I
00:47:33.800
have felt your love and prayers throughout this whole ordeal. And so I thank you personally for
00:47:40.660
spreading my message as well and giving me all that love and support. I feel it.