In an opening night convention speech stunning for the depth and breadth of its chutzpah and hypocrisy, New York governor Andrew Cuomo ignored his own criminal negligence in ushering patients infected with the Chinese Wuhan virus into New York nursing homes, sentencing tens of thousands of vulnerable seniors to death.

It was perhaps fitting that the first night of the party of death’s national convention, a party that supports the killing of unborn life on demand up to and even after the moment of birth, featured New York’s angel of nursing-home death. Cuomo spent the evening obfuscating the disease’s origins, denying the immediate and effective response by the Trump administration, and not mentioning the federal help he received -- and ignored -- which could have saved untold lives. As Fox News reported:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic during his Monday night speech to the Democratic National Convention, accusing the White House of "negligence" even as his own administration drew flak for thousands of deaths in New York's nursing homes.

"Our collective strength is exercised through government. It is, in effect, our immune system. And our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent. It couldn't fight off the virus. In fact, it didn't even see it coming. The European virus infected the northeast while the White House was still fixated on China," Cuomo said during his speech, an apparent counterpoint to Trump's labeling of COVID-19 as the "China virus."

He added: "The virus had been attacking us for months before they even knew it was here. We saw the failure of a government that tried to deny the virus, then tried to ignore it, and then tried to politicize it…”

To call these obscene lies would be charitable. There is no “European virus” unless Cuomo can tell us the country of origin and the identity of Patient Zero. But, hey, white Europeans brought racism to our shores, so why not blame them for deadly disease as well? In fact, the Wuhan virus came to Europe with the myriad Chinese nationals working in Italy and the rest of Europe, returning after celebrating the Chinese New Year in their home country. Does Cuomo forget how China shut down domestic flights from Wuhan but deliberately let foreign flights leave for Europe and New York?

Trump shut down travel from the country of origin, China, even as the first U.S. case was confirmed, an action that saved perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives.

It’s hard to see anything coming when the World Health Organization is buying China’s lies about its origin and the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci were telling us the U.S. had nothing to worry about and didn’t even have to wear masks. Did Cuomo, one of the deranged chicken littles that see climate change in every melting snowflake, see it coming?

Trump gave Cuomo, who invented a phony ventilator crisis, more ventilators than he could handle, turned convention centers into world-class treatment facilities, built field hospitals in Central Park, and placed massive hospital ships in New York Harbor. Cuomo used little of this massive help, preferring instead to force COVID patients into nursing homes, an action that killed thousands of seniors. Roughly half of COVID deaths occurred in nursing homes in New York and elsewhere, avoidable deaths caused by bloviating politicians. New York didn’t get ambushed by federal negligence, but by Cuomo’s criminal orders.

Fox News Meteorologist Janice Dean’s in-laws died as a result of Cuomo’s criminal negligence. On the day Cuomo spoke at the convention, she finally got to tell her story before New York lawmakers. As Fox News detailed:

Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who recently lost her elderly in-laws to COVID-19, finally got to testify before New York State lawmakers on nursing home deaths on Monday after she was denied the opportunity the week before.

Dean told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is not providing the exact numbers of those who died from COVID-19 in adult care facilities because “New York state does not count the numbers that we lost in hospitals from nursing homes...”

Last week, Dean found out that she was taken off the list to testify at a hearing geared toward understanding why and how the pandemic took root in New York nursing homes.

She said New York State Sen. Thomas O'Mara, a Republican, had admitted to her "that they [the Senate Majority] were uncomfortable having [her] as a witness," so they took her off the list. Speaking on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” last week, Dean said she believed Cuomo or his administration were behind the decision…

Dean said her father-in-law, who was in a nursing home and rehabilitation center, died the same day she and her husband found out he was sick and that they didn’t know he had contracted the novel coronavirus until they saw his death certificate.

Dean also said that her husband’s mother contracted COVID-19 in her assisted living facility. She was transported to the hospital and died in the hospital. Dean’s mother-in-law died on April 14, about two weeks after her father-in-law passed away from the novel coronavirus….

“We don't know the full numbers,” Dean said on Tuesday. “Cuomo and his health commissioner have been asked time and time again to give us the actual total deaths that happened, not only in nursing homes, but from seniors that were transported to hospitals and died in hospitals even though they got COVID-19 in their respective elder care facilities.”

The truth should make Andrew Cuomo uncomfortable and a full investigation should also make him accountable. His callous words are particularly bitter to the families of the nursing home residents victimized by his administration. Cuomo at one point said he didn’t know, but it was the job of this know-it-all to know. Maybe, like New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said of the Bill of Rights, such knowledge is above his pay grade. Arguably, that fiasco makes Gov. Cuomo New York’s latest and greatest serial killer:

New York’s health commissioner on Monday defended a directive that requires nursing homes to readmit residents who’ve tested positive for the coronavirus -- as Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed he didn’t know the policy was in place.

Cuomo was asked about the state’s policy on admitting or readmitting to nursing homes people who’d tested positive for COVID-19. 

“That’s a good question, I don’t know,” the governor said.

Cuomo’s startling admission came days after the state revealed last week that at least 3,316 people in nursing homes and adult care facilities had died of coronavirus at their residences or in hospitals across the state.

Few people know, and Cuomo doesn’t tell them, that a quarter of New York deaths have occurred in nursing homes he wasn’t paying attention to. If he had been, he would have been aware of the death sentence his administration gave many vulnerable seniors: 

…look at the now-infamous March 25 directive from the New York State Department of Health that orders those homes and rehabilitation centers to admit and readmit patients sick with the coronavirus. The devil comes in the first sentence of the fifth paragraph:

“No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.” …

The disease has claimed more than 3,500 souls in nursing and rehab centers, or nearly 25 percent of the total known deaths in the state. There is no way to know exactly how many died as a result of the state order, but the number is certainly not zero. The cause and effect relationship is obvious.

Cuomo at one point claimed federal guidelines led to what amounts to his criminal negligence, forcing his hand, yet most states did not do what he did:

Other states, recognizing the dangers of infecting the vulnerable, required or encouraged nursing homes to set up separate units or staffs to handle patients testing positive. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely criticized in the national media for avoiding a total lockdown, zeroed in on nursing homes, encouraging repeated testing and temperature-taking of residents and staff and isolating anyone testing positive. Florida, a state with 2 million more people than New York, had just 714 nursing home deaths, 13% of the number in New York.

One estimate says nursing homes have accounted for upwards of 46% of virus deaths, yet states like New York made no effort to protect seniors. Perhaps it was campaign cash that persuaded Cuomo to look the other way as seniors were sent to their deaths. He accepted reelection cash from a hospital association and then gave immunity to those who operate nursing homes:

As Governor Andrew Cuomo faced a spirited challenge in his bid to win New York’s 2018 Democratic primary, his political apparatus got a last-minute boost: a powerful healthcare industry group suddenly poured more than $1m into a Democratic committee backing his campaign.

Less than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month quietly shielding hospital and nursing home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted into an annual budget bill by Cuomo’s aides, created one of the nation’s most explicit immunity protections for healthcare industry officials, according to legal experts.

New York Post columnist Miranda Devine recently noted that Cuomo was still sending COVID patients into nursing homes, not only failing to protect the most vulnerable but deliberately putting them at risk:

In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with host Ainsley Earhardt, Devine said that COVID-19 patients were transferred back into nursing home facilities because of an order from Cuomo in late March.

"And, it's obscene really that he's not admitting that now. He is still sending them back there and he's acting as if there was no choice. Of course, there was a choice…"

The nursing homes were begging for them not to be sent back.., They were short-staffed. How could they quarantine these elderly, frail people?" she asked…

"He is still doing it and this is what is so reprehensible. It's one thing to make a mistake in the heat of the moment. It's another to dig your heels in while people are still dying…"

Somehow this was never brought up when Chris Cuomo, who violated quarantine rules to visit a property he owned, interviewed brother Andrew. Instead of asking why Andrew herded COVID patients into nursing homes, Chris asked how he felt being single and eligible again.

Trump’s actions didn’t lead to the deaths of Janice Dean’s parents-in-law. Convention speaker Andrew Cuomo’s did.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.               

Image: Zack Seward