Somewhere, Matt Dornic, Jeff Zucker, and the rest of CNN must be nodding and smiling in approval. Thursday afternoon on Twitter, Never Trumper and CNN political commentator Ana Navarro gleefully attacked Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean for calling out Wednesday’s despicable, mega-swab-filled, and now-infamous Cuomo Prime Time segment.
Not only did Dean lose both her in-laws due to the coronavirus, but both were also New York nursing home residents and thus were victims of New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo’s deadly nursing-home policy. As our Nick Fondacaro wrote, the governor and brother/CNN host Chris Cuomo decided that such matters were beneath them, but Chris playing with giant swabs was fine.
We’ll get to Navarro’s smears, but first we’ll look at Dean’s powerful appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight that paid tribute to how Mickey and Dee Newman were “real people…not just numbers on a curve.”
Carlson asked if she believed that Andrew’s policy “contributed to” their deaths, and Dean stated that she did “and that's one of the reasons I'm speaking out, Tucker because I have not seen the coverage of this” outside of Fox News and the New York Post.
She added that “this should be one of the biggest stories of this pandemic of 2020” as “20 percent of our lost loved ones are from nursing homes and it's because Governor Cuomo and several other governors, by the way in different states forced COVID-recovering patients into nursing homes.”
Click “expand” to read more of what Dean had to say about what her in-laws went through in their final days. She also denounced Wednesday’s insensitive segment from the Cuomo brothers:
DEAN: I am certain at least one of his parents, I believe his dad, before his dad died, week before his dad died, they called Sean to tell him they were moving him to another floor and I believe that floor was used for recovering COVID patients. I can't prove that. We can't get any confirmation on any of this and by the way, he didn't find out until the death certificate came in that he was COVID. He got a call on a Saturday morning that his dad was not feeling well, and three hours later, he was dead and his mom, two weeks later got COVID, was rushed to the hospital, died in the hospital, and her number will not be counted as a nursing home or an assisted living home because of the governor’s policy of saying that she died in the hospital, even though it was confirmed COVID.
(….)
DEAN: And the fact that I am seeing last night him on another channel and making fun, inappropriate jokes and insensitive jokes, cruel jokes, make no mistake I am glad that Chris Cuomo has recovered from COVID because he apparently did have it.
CARLSON: Yes.
DEAN: And I'm glad that their family as well, but my family is not well and that’s not something to joke about.
CARLSON: No, it’s not.
Now, back to Navarro. Her dismissal began with a quote-tweet of a video from Fondacaro:
Just over three hours later, Dean fired back: “One guy faked his own quarantine. The other guy let recovering Covid patients back into nursing homes which ultimately I believe killed one or both of my in-laws. If this clown show happened on Fox, you’d be raging. Sit down, please.”
Displaying CNN’s penchant for juvenile behavior instead of sensitivity and sobriety, Navarro chose to downplay Dean’s loss and brush off the tone-deafness:
Dean aptly replied with the observation that there didn’t appear to be “any disputing of my facts” in her tweet, so she would take it “as a win,” “[b]ut keep on deflecting, Karen.”
Solid use of the “Karen,” JD.
Twitter widely panned Navarro’s nonsense throughout this exchange (and our friends at Twitchy chronicled this), but things went into the offensive and repugnant realms with this reply:
Reminding us that she’s a far better person than most anyone in the media (or the political realm), Dean tweeted: “Also I called someone a ‘Karen’ this afternoon on twitter and I actually have real life amazing friends named Karen, so I want to apologize to all the kind, awesome Karens in life. You should not be associated with mean girls like the one I called Karen.”
To see the relevant FNC transcript from May 21, click “expand.”
FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight
May 21, 2020
8:22 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]TUCKER CARLSON: So, as we told you a couple of times on the show because it really is the signature scandal of the season, many thousands died because of the way Andrew Cuomo mismanaged New York state's nursing homes. One of the people affected by this in the saddest way is our own Janice Dean. She lost both of her in-laws inside a nursing home in New York, and she joins us next with that story. Stay tuned.
(….)
8:27 p.m. Eastern
CARLSON: New York has by far the country's highest death toll from the coronavirus, more than 5,600 of those dead were in nursing homes. Probably a number of reasons for that, but one of them was government policy. The policy of Andrew Cuomo, which required those nursing homes to admit patients who tested positive for the virus. It was insane. Governor Cuomo hasn’t been asked much about it. He did appear on CNN yesterday. The interview went as you would imagine giving the interviewer was his brother.
CHRIS CUOMO [on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, 05/20/20]: Is it true that this was the swab that the nurse was actually using on you, and that at first it went into your nose and disappeared so that in scale this [Pulls out giant, prop cotton swab] was the actual swab that was being used to fit up that double-barrel shotgun that you have mounted on the front of your pretty face?
CARLSON: Yeah, pretty amusing. A little more political theater for you. In fact, about 5,000 people died. This policy was at the center of that. This was an actual scandal and you should know more about it. Fox senior meteorologist Janice Dean unfortunately knows an awful lot about it. Both of her in-laws, both of her husband's parents, died recently of the coronavirus while in New York nursing homes. Janice joins us tonight, Janice, thanks so much for coming on. You and I have talked a lot about this off-camera. You were very hesitant, but this seems like a really important story, a national story and firsthand experience of it, so tell us if you would and if you can what happened.
JANICE DEAN: So, my husband's parents were in assisted living. His mom was in an assisted living facility. His dad was in a nursing home and the plan was to have them both together so Dee, his mom was in assisted living, a double room. We were planning to have Mickey live with her. Mickey had dementia and he had a few problems the he needed rehab so was in a nursing/rehab center and the plan was to have them together and Sean really wrestled with putting them in nursing homes and in assisted living so this was a decision that you know, took place six, eight months ago very recently after struggling for months wondering if this is the right move and as you told your audience, we know longer have them here today.
CARLSON: Ah. That has got to be the hardest decision middle-aged people ever make, most of them, you know, how to help and care for aging parents who can't care for themselves, so this makes it all the more --- all the more devastating. And I just have to ask you, how is your husband holding up after this?
DEAN: It’s day by day, Tucker. We weren't able to have a funeral for them or celebrate their life --- life properly. That was very difficult in the way that normal people would mourn. We didn't have that. He and his sister are recently cleaning out their apartment that they grew up in, that his parents lived in for over 60 years. They were married for 59 years. They had never been apart. His dad was a New York City firefighter and was in the U.S. Air Force and these people are real people. They’re not just numbers on a curve.
CARLSON: No, they are not and you believe, having covered it, that the policy decision, the governor's decision to allow or to prevent the exclusion of infected patients to live in nursing homes contributed to this?
DEAN: I do and that's one of the reasons I'm speaking out, Tucker because I have not seen the coverage of this. You’ve covered it, Martha’s covered and the New York Post covered it. This should be one of the biggest stories of this pandemic of 2020. 20 percent of our lost loved ones are from nursing homes and it's because Governor Cuomo and several other governors, by the way in different states ---
CARLSON: Yes.
DEAN: --- forced COVID-recovering patients into nursing homes and I am certain at least one of his parents, I believe his dad, before his dad died, week before his dad died, they called Sean to tell him they were moving him to another floor and I believe that floor was used for recovering COVID patients. I can't prove that. We can't get any confirmation on any of this and by the way, he didn't find out until the death certificate came in that he was COVID. He got a call on a Saturday morning that his dad was not feeling well, and three hours later, he was dead and his mom, two weeks later got COVID, was rushed to the hospital, died in the hospital, and her number will not be counted as a nursing home or an assisted living home because of the governor’s policy of saying that she died in the hospital, even though it was confirmed COVID.
CARLSON: So, I mean, that’s clearly an effort to reduce the total ---
DEAN: Yes.
CARLSON: --- of reported deaths in nursing homes. A way to cover himself.
DEAN: Absolutely and the fact that I am seeing last night him on another channel and making fun, inappropriate jokes and insensitive jokes, cruel jokes, make no mistake I am glad that Chris Cuomo has recovered from COVID because he apparently did have it.
CARLSON: Yes.
DEAN: And I'm glad that their family as well, but my family is not well and that’s not something to joke about.
CARLSON: No, it’s not and I should just say and I know that our viewers who know you know this, but you are not a political person, not someone who makes political statements ever in private or in public and for you to come on to discuss this, it took a lot and we’re grateful that you did. Janice Dean, thank you. I’m so sorry.
DEAN: Thank you, thank you for caring, Tucker, thank you for caring.
