On Monday, Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean was set to address a committee of New York legislators investigating the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and specifically Governor Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home policy, but she was never given a chance to speak due to fears that her presence would be uncomfortable.
Of course, Dean’s story hasn’t been covered from the newscasts and websites of ABC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC/NBC since they all don’t want to upset Cuomo and take themselves out of the running for any future lovefests with the “love gov.” It must be nice to know that most of one of the country’s most powerful forces won’t consistently hold you to account. In other words, they don't really care.
In contrast, FNC shows have given Dean over 17 minutes of airtime since she was axed from the hearing. On Monday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, Dean said she “filled out all the paperwork and I sent letters to assemblymen and lawmakers, New York State lawmakers for the hearings,” but come Monday and the hearing, the invitation was rescinded.
She added that Cuomo has “blamed everybody else except the person that signed the mandate, the order to bring COVID patients into nursing homes and that was Andrew Cuomo” and instead “blamed everyone except himself.”
Dean joined her primary show of Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning to reiterate that she did all that was asked and needed of her to secure a place, but not only was she never called on Monday, but a New York State Republican Senator Tom O’Mara “admitted that they were uncomfortable — uncomfortable having me as a witness yesterday, so they took me off the list.”
Co-host Steve Doocy asked her what she would have said if she could have spoken, so Dean replied with the story of her in-laws and, after that, she told co-host Brian Kilmeade about what she wants answers on from the state government (click “expand”):
I wanted to tell the story of Mickey and Dee Newman and how they were New York Tough. Born and bred in New York, they raised three children, lived in a four story walk-up for 60 years in New York City. They got sick and they couldn't take care of themselves or each other and they were in separate assisted living facilities, hoping that we were going to get them together. Then COVID-19 came in play and took the lives of both of them. I want answers. I want accountability. The A.P. had a story today about how New York is hiding the actual numbers. Dee, my mother-in-law, was transported to a hospital where she died there but she got coronavirus in her assisted living facility, but her number does not count. So they — the governor is hiding and because he says he doesn't want an independent investigation, that, to me, you know, there’s something wrong with that because if he wasn't guilty of something, why wouldn't he welcome any and all investigations into his government?
(....)
[Cuomo] got everything he wanted. There were many places where they could have brought coronavirus patients, but instead, he put them in nursing homes. Over 6,000 infected patients went into nursing homes and the governor failed to take any responsibility. He has blamed everyone else from the President to the CDC to even the people that died in the nursing homes and in the beginning he said, you know what, the buck stops at my desk. If you have a problem with anything, you blame me and he has never taken any responsibility at all. He continues to blame everyone, including Fox News.
Hours later, on Outnumbered Overtime, Dean became emotional in talking about how she originally “wasn’t going to speak out” as it’s been “very difficult for my family, for my husband, to actually see me do these interviews” plus “read anything” or “watch” anything she’s done on this subject.
She went on (click “expand”):
[B]ut the reason he is letting me do this is because at the very beginning when we were seeing interviews with Governor Cuomo, no one was asking about the nursing home deaths, no one. He would go on all of the talk shows and he talk about his love life and the fact that, you know, he flattened the curves after 30,000 deaths. And I just thought it was important if no one is asking him the questions, then perhaps I need to raise my voice and say, this happened to my family and I want answers. I would like accountability. From the very beginning, he said you know what, if you have a problem with my governorship, the buck stops at my desk. I’m the one that makes these laws and makes these changes, so blame me. But Harris, I have never seen him take any kind of accountability. I've actually never seen him express what you just expressed to me and that is remorse and empathy. I think had he done that at the very beginning and said I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I was trying to make sure that we have enough beds for six people. I would have accepted that and moved on, but because he was not wanting any accountability or any answers to this day, we still don't know how many people died of coronavirus and getting it in their nursing homes.
“They’re real people and they were important to us and they were the grandparents to my children and I want them to be remembered. They’re just not numbers on a curve,” she concluded.
