On a recent show, CNN's Jake Tapper helped deconstruct how New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nursing home mandate likely played a role in the deaths of thousands of senior citizens since the start of the coronavirus outbreak and like many of us was shocked that the governor was nevertheless going on a "victory lap" about how he handled the crisis. Tapper also joined the chorus of critics who lambasted Cuomo for joking about his love life on late night television while New York families were still in mourning.
"NY state has lost more than 32,000 lives to COVID-19," Tapper wrote on Twitter. "So while it's great that the numbers have gone down, it's perplexing to see crowing, Cuomo going on Fallon, etc. No other state has lost as many lives, not even close. New Jersey is next with 17,000+."
Tapper then criticized Cuomo for his new "New York Tough" poster, which he's selling online for about $15. Fox News's Janice Dean, who lost both of her in-laws to COVID in a New York nursing home, called Cuomo's gawdy graphic a "COVID mountain of death."
Gov. Cuomo on CNN says the pandemic poster is "not a celebration at all... That was Mr. Tapper's misconstruction."
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 16, 2020
As he usually does, Gov. Cuomo maintained his innocence and hit back at his latest critic. He also threw in another shot at President Trump, who he likes to blame for his own mess.
No," Cuomo said on CNN. "Tapper should say that Trump is to blame for the virus coming to New York."
"Tapper should say that Trump is to blame for the virus coming to New York, because that is the fact, that's what the CDC just said," Cuomo added, arguing that "governors don't do global pandemics."