March is now upon us which means we are rapidly approaching our one-year anniversary of "15 days to slow the spread" of COVID-19 once the virus reached our shores after emerging from Wuhan, China.
The early days of the pandemic were filled with confusion and frustration as lockdowns were put in place and many wondered if they would have a job by the end of the month. With the virus being new, many were looking for answers on what to do and how to handle such a pandemic.
Democrats and the media found that comfort in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They became obsessed with his daily press conferences, calling it much-watch TV. All that love slowly began to fall apart after it was revealed he ordered nursing homes to take in COVID-19 positive patients despite the fact it was known the elderly were among the high-risk population, pumping up the death toll, and then manipulating the death numbers to hide the devastating effect his order had on nursing homes.
Anyone paying attention to what was happening in New York knew something was off, but the country was still in the "Orange Man Bad" mode and was more focused on Trump's mistakes he made early on in the pandemic. While there were things to certainly criticize, the issue was there were mistakes made at the state level that made the pandemic worse than it had it be.
Cuomo's supporters sang his high praises on social media, calling him the true leader of the country and that his "leadership" was what was really needed during the troubling times. Though a small sampling, it shows how doing something as regular as a press conference can blind those to the obvious poor decision-making happening in the background.
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I love waking up to Andrew Cuomo. It’s like the universe is giving us what we’ve been missing for the last 3 years. A confident voice of leadership during terrible times. The truth, for starters.
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) March 24, 2020
Can’t help thinking how incredibly proud Governor Mario Cuomo must be looking down at Governor Andrew Cuomo. His leadership in this deadly crisis is spectacular. He is meeting this moment and displaying the qualities that have always defined America’s greatest leaders.
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) March 29, 2020
My life is currently divided in two parts: 1. @NYGovCuomo’s daily press conference; 2. the rest of the day.
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) March 29, 2020
About Gov. Andrew Cuomo, one person writes, "I call his daily briefings my Cuomotherapy. He manages to convey serious, scary information while being calming; empathetic and calm."
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) March 29, 2020
Can’t help thinking how incredibly proud Governor Mario Cuomo must be looking down at Governor Andrew Cuomo. His leadership in this deadly crisis is spectacular. He is meeting this moment and displaying the qualities that have always defined America’s greatest leaders.
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) March 29, 2020
Is it possible for @NYGovCuomo to run for president? I’m sitting here watching his press conference and even tho things are the scary, I feel he is being honest and vulnerable and strong. this is what leadership looks like.
— Abby Wambach (@AbbyWambach) March 29, 2020
The rise of Andrew Cuomo shows that times of tragedy can make very unlikely political heroes | Analysis https://t.co/QJXw82GQvF pic.twitter.com/aVPIKm4LmB
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 29, 2020
The quality of Cuomo's press conferences is eclipsing how good Newsom has been in containing the spread. California currently ranks 30th among the states in cases per capita. https://t.co/FzYTdDykym
— Bill Scher (@billscher) March 29, 2020
I almost teared up to Cuomo's simple statement of
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) March 29, 2020
excelsior - ever upwards
and
and e pluribus unum - out of many, one.
Obviously this is an emotional time.
MSNBC’s Cuomo-worship is embarrassing pic.twitter.com/xdgyPETgVR
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) March 29, 2020
Why Andrew Cuomo's press conferences are so credible: when something is bad, or likely to get worse, he says so. This allows people to trust him when he says that something looks hopeful, or when he asks the public to do something. Donald Trump doesn't understand the concept.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) April 3, 2020
The Cuomo brothers have become household names thanks to nonstop coronavirus coverage — here are some of their greatest moments on air pic.twitter.com/oNShVRhczq
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 3, 2020
Every day @NYGovCuomo reminds us of what true competence and leadership looks like. https://t.co/p0T0EzOsZ5
— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) April 3, 2020
Cuomo has maintained the reported death numbers have always been correct, but then an aide said they hid the true death toll to avoid the ire of the Department of Justice.
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