During an interview with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday, NBC’s Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie gently wondered if it was a “mistake” for the Democrat to force nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients, a policy responsible for thousands of deaths across the hard-hit state. Predictably, Cuomo refused to accept responsibility.
After touting gradual economic reopening as “a great day for the State of New York” and wondering if the Governor would be “imposing a quarantine” on out-of-state visitors, Guthrie turned to the disaster in New York’s nursing homes:
Governor, I have to ask you about what happened in nursing homes in this state. In March, you issued a directive that nursing homes could not turn away those who had COVID, which exposed a vulnerable population. You had 5,800 people die in senior homes in this state. In retrospect, was that order a mistake? I know that guidance has since been changed.
Cuomo flatly rejected the suggestion that his policy decision was wrong: “No, we followed federal guidance on the nursing homes. So what we did here in New York is nothing different than what the federal government put out as guidance for every state.” Guthrie interjected: “Was that a mistake?”
Amazingly the liberal politician still refused to admit his failure:
No. Look, if you look at how many people died in nursing homes in New York compared to other states, we actually have a lower percentage of people who died in nursing homes. But we had more people die than any other state, that’s a fact. The reason that happened was because we had the virus coming from Europe when the federal government told us the virus was coming from China.
Obviously that was not an answer, but rather than continue to press him on the topic, Guthrie decided it was time to move on to the debate about taking down statues:
Let me ask you, on another topic, President Trump mentioned in an interview that he feels cities should take further action to stop monuments from being destroyed. We saw that scene at the White House with the Andrew Jackson statue, near the White House. We know, for example, Theodore Roosevelt statue is coming down in New York City. Do you agree with the president’s guidance that cities should do more to protect monuments?
Cuomo immediately used the issue to slam Trump: “Yeah, I don’t even know what the president’s guidance is, Savannah, frankly....I think it’s a healthy expression of people saying let’s get some priorities here and let’s remember the sin and mistake that this nation made and let’s not celebrate it.”
Wrapping up the interview, Guthrie worried that there was “something fishy” about the President firing the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York: “Finally, I have to ask you about the firing of the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, one of the most powerful prosecutors in the country....Do you think there’s anything suspicious there, do you think there’s something fishy there?”
Naturally, Cuomo jumped at the chance to slam Trump once again:
This is a prosecutor’s office that was investigating the president personally and people around the president personally. And this was a very heavy-handed move by the Department of Justice. But look, the President has made his position clear from day one. He doesn’t consider the Department of Justice an independent agency. He considers it a political appointee of his and they’re all political appointees of his. And the president’s position is if you don’t support him politically, then you’re out. And he does that with Justice Department officials, there’s nothing new there. You know look at what they’re doing with the Attorney General Barr, in Washington, and the favoritism for the president’s cronies. It’s just an extension of what they do and what they believe. So I wouldn’t be shocked at it, but yes, it’s heavy-handed and it’s a distortion of justice.
At least Guthrie asked the question about nursing homes while refraining from swooning over Cuomo, unlike her colleagues at ABC and CBS, who gushed over the “Luv Gov” and cheered him “having a moment.”
During an interview with the Governor on Monday, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle pointedly asked: “Do you take responsibility for that order and the role it may have played in those deaths?” However, she then let Cuomo spin and pass the buck.
The media infatuation with Cuomo at the expense of real journalism has been embarrassing to watch. At least there have been rare, brief moments of reporters asking some of the important questions that need to be asked.
Here is a full transcript of Guthrie’s June 23 interview with Cuomo:
7:35 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: That brings us to Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, who joins us live. Governor, good morning to you. This is a great day for the State of New York, as these areas and New York City enter a new phase of reopening. But of course, it’s happening in the back drop of what’s going on around the country, where states that reopened earlier are now seeing serious spikes in cases. Scale of 1 to 10, how worried are you that that will be New York’s fate?
ANDREW CUOMO: Well, Savannah, the good news is that we went through what the other states are going through, and we did have a science-based reopening. We did it on the facts. We did control it, we did moderate it. And that’s what works. The states that reopened with abandon, they now have tremendous infection rates. They’re talking about closing again, their hospitals are overwhelmed. And that vindicates what states like New York did. Don’t reopen in a rush, reopen intelligently, and then you won’t have a subsequent problem. So we’re right on track. Our approach has worked. We went from one of the highest infection rates in the United States to one of the lowest infection rates. So it has worked and the state is coming back. And we just have to make sure other states don’t infect us now.
GUTHRIE: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that, because you talked about potentially imposing a quarantine from other states, particularly Florida, which of course did the same to New Yorkers. Was that a jab at Florida’s governor or are you actually considering telling folks from other states, other hot spots, “You have to quarantine if you want to come to the State of New York”?
CUOMO: Well, it’s not just Florida. You have about half the states in this country, you’re seeing the virus going up. New York, we have the virus going down. So we’re now afraid that we have the low infection rate, people get on a plane and they come to New York. And I have people calling me all day long saying they’re worried about where they are, they want to come to New York. And that’s great. But we don’t want them bringing the virus here. So we’re seriously considering a quarantine just to make sure that people who come from states with higher infections don’t inadvertently increase our infection rate.
GUTHRIE: This is of course a great day of progress, as you know, in the Hudson Valley, which is entering phase three, today, of reopening. New York City entering its new phase of reopening. But a lot of business owners say, “Governor Cuomo, you have moved too slowly.” And that they have just been crushed economically. What’s your response to that?
CUOMO: I say look at the facts, look around the country, everything says we did it right and we did it smart. Look, nobody wanted to close. No business person wanted to close, no employee wanted to stay home. But there was no alternative, Savannah. And those states that had this blind, okay, let’s do whatever we want to do and we’ll reopen immediately, they have serious problems now. Not only will you have those states where more people die, but it wasn’t even better for the businesses. Because now they reopened and now they have an infection rate issue and they’re talking about closing again. So anyone who thinks we could have reopened sooner, look at Florida, look at Arizona, look at Texas, look at the other 23 states that are going up. And it shows we were smart and right.
GUTHRIE: Governor, I have to ask you about what happened in nursing homes in this state. In March, you issued a directive that nursing homes could not turn away those who had COVID, which exposed a vulnerable population. You had 5,800 people die in senior homes in this state. In retrospect, was that order a mistake? I know that guidance has since been changed.
CUOMO: No, we followed federal guidance on the nursing homes. So what we did here in New York is nothing different than what the federal government put out as guidance for every state. Yes, people died in nursing homes, Savannah –
GUTHRIE: Was that a mistake?
CUOMO: No. Look, if you look at how many people died in nursing homes in New York compared to other states, we actually have a lower percentage of people who died in nursing homes. But we had more people die than any other state, that’s a fact. The reason that happened was because we had the virus coming from Europe when the federal government told us the virus was coming from China. And we had no screening on people coming from Europe. Now, the federal government just missed that. But yes, more people died in nursing homes in New York. But more people died in nursing homes in every state. It attacked the older people in congregate settings, and those were nursing homes.
GUTHRIE: Let me ask you, on another topic, President Trump mentioned in an interview that he feels cities should take further action to stop monuments from being destroyed. We saw that scene at the White House with the Andrew Jackson statue, near the White House. We know, for example, Theodore Roosevelt statue is coming down in New York City. Do you agree with the president’s guidance that cities should do more to protect monuments?
CUOMO: Yeah, I don’t even know what the president’s guidance is, Savannah, frankly. Cities are making decisions. The Teddy Roosevelt statue, I think, was less about Teddy Roosevelt but the other parts of that statue. And look, people are making a statement about equality, about community, to be against racism, against slavery. I think those are good statements. And it depends – you know, can you overdo it? Of course you can. But in New York, I don’t think we’ve overdone it. And I think it’s a healthy expression of people saying let’s get some priorities here and let’s remember the sin and mistake that this nation made and let’s not celebrate it.
GUTHRIE: Finally, I have to ask you about the firing of the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, one of the most powerful prosecutors in the country. The president fired him. Do you think there’s anything suspicious there, do you think there’s something fishy there?
CUOMO: Well, I don’t think the president gets involved in firing a particular U.S. Attorney unless the issue is of particular import to the president. This is a prosecutor’s office that was investigating the president personally and people around the president personally. And this was a very heavy-handed move by the Department of Justice. But look, the President has made his position clear from day one. He doesn’t consider the Department of Justice an independent agency. He considers it a political appointee of his and they’re all political appointees of his. And the president’s position is if you don’t support him politically, then you’re out. And he does that with Justice Department officials, there’s nothing new there. You know look at what they’re doing with the Attorney General Barr, in Washington, and the favoritism for the president’s cronies. It’s just an extension of what they do and what they believe. So I wouldn’t be shocked at it, but yes, it’s heavy-handed and it’s a distortion of justice.
GUTHRIE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, got to leave it there. Thank you for your time and best of luck with the reopening of this state. We appreciate it.
CUOMO: Thank you, Savannah.
