CNN host Brian Stelter compared Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to former President Donald Trump on Monday, saying that Cuomo has resorted to “media bashing” following the news of his alleged cover up of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes.
Stelter appeared on “CNN Newsroom” alongside host Brianna Keilar and discussed Cuomo’s threats against the media in their coverage of the nursing home scandal. (RELATED: ‘You Will Be Held Accountable’: Congressman Lays Out Possible Federal Case Against Andrew Cuomo)
“New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has a new target in his sights. The media. Cuomo is under fire over accusations that he and his administration covered up thousands of Covid related deaths from nursing homes. The governor, taking aim at the media with a not-so-veiled threat,” Keilar began, before playing a video of Cuomo attacking the media over “misinformation” during a press conference and saying he would call them out for lying to New Yorkers.
Cuomo is being investigated by the FBI and over his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in nursing homes after it surfaced that they reportedly undercounted the number of deaths that occurred among the nursing home population.
After the administration halted its policy of admitting patients that tested positive for the coronavirus into nursing homes, they changed the way they reported nursing home deaths by only including those deaths that actually occurred in the nursing home, and not in other facilities, such as the hospital.
After the video, Keilar pointed out that Cuomo is now facing allegations of “bullying and intimidation” from a Democratic New York Assemblyman Ron Kim, who says Cuomo threatened him over comments he made about a meeting concerning nursing home deaths in the state. “Calling out lies is one thing, but it seems that Cuomo would consider fair reporting about this nursing home controversy to be a lie, and that is another thing,” Keilar added.
“Whenever a politician resorts to media bashing, you know they’re in it pretty deep. Of course, Governor Cuomo is particularly Trumpy when it comes to Democrats in the United States. He has a Trumpian streak and he does resort to media bashing from time to time,” Stelter chimed in.
“I’m sure he feels that there are partisan, right wing websites and television networks that are unfairly trying to take him down … To your point there are a lot of real reporters digging into this, asking legitimate questions, and it’s never a good look for the governor to be saying it’s about misinformation and lying,” Stelter continued.