While ABC's World News Tonight spent less than a minute on Thursday covering the federal probe into Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, the network’s daytime political talk show, The View, gave the new developments seven minutes and twenty-seven seconds on Friday. In fact, that’s more time than their evening and morning news shows have devoted to the story since Monday.
The hosts spoke with Queens Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim, who revealed this week that the governor had called and threatened him after he publicly criticized the governor’s actions covering up nursing home deaths. With the first few questions, the hosts asked Kim to tell his story:
JOY BEHAR: Yes. Early on in the pandemic, Governor Cuomo got backlash for returning coronavirus patients to nursing homes. That was the first thing, instead of keeping them in the hospital. He later reversed that order, but now he's in hot water again for undercounting the nursing home deaths by as much as 50%, and he’s being accused of a coverup which he denies. Now you publicly criticized him for this, and then he called you. Tell us what happened after he called you or when he called you.
(....)
SARA HAINES: Well, you hired a lawyer in the wake of this call. Why? What exactly did you understand Cuomo to be asking you to do?
(....)
MEGHAN MCCAIN: Has Governor Cuomo made threats like this before to your knowledge, and why do you think it took so long for people to finally come to this story?
Of course, this is The View. So despite their guest being a Democrat, some of the liberal hosts still had a hard time hearing criticism about the governor. Sunny Hostin wouldn’t put any blame on the Democrat, and predictably, blamed former President Trump for the Democrat’s decisions which killed thousands of New Yorkers:
The Trump administration and its coronavirus task force led by Vice President Pence with a separate team led by Jared Kushner had such a limited federal pandemic response, and rather than have the federal government involved, the administration decided to have states largely fend for themselves. Sometimes even pitting the states against each other for resources. Do you think the Trump administration bears any responsibility for this scandal and crisis?
Co-host Ana Navarro also took the defensive approach, using her first question to cite a Cuomo aide who claimed Kim was lying about the governor, before ignoring the scandal entirely with her second question to instead ask about the rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans.
Beyond the full segment devoted to the Kim interview, co-host Meghan McCain also brought up Cuomo in an earlier segment when they were bashing Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s bad vacation optics.
I think part of the reason why he did it is because as you noted, Joy, politicians can get away with more now than they used to be able to. I mean, we have Nancy Pelosi getting a haircut during quarantine when no one else in the state was allowed to. Gavin Newsom spending $20,000 going to a high end restaurant in Napa Valley called French Laundry after telling people in California they couldn't be dining indoors or going to restaurants. Gretchen Whitmer bucking every rule we put in place while she was governor and obviously governor Cuomo. The explosion on Twitter is warranted, but I wish last night when I was seeing the absolute outrage and more time being dedicated towards this scandal. I wish we had a modicum of what was dedicated to the Ted Cruz scandal, dedicated to the scandal with Governor Cuomo where 15,000, you know, elderly people were, you know, tragically died in nursing homes and the media has ignored it for a year…. I wish that Democrats were hit in the same way for things they have justifiably done wrong, that Republicans are right now as well.
Remarkably, even Joy Behar conceded that McCain had “a good point.”
Besides downplaying Cuomo, we’ve also noted how ABC has refused to acknowledge Biden’s former deputy press secretary, T.J. Ducklo’s scandal. He resigned in disgrace last weekend after his threats against a female reporter were exposed. The silence was broken today on The View but not by the hosts, but their Democrat guest:
“Cuomo is an abuser. He has abused his powers. Abusers are cowards, and he's worse than T.J. Ducklo,” Kim stated.
Read the relevant transcript questions below:
ABC's The View
02/19/2021
11:33 a.m. EasternJOY BEHAR: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is currently under federal investigation amid accusations that his administration tried to cover up COVID-related nursing home deaths, and now New York assemblyman Ron Kim, a fellow Democrat, he says that Governor Cuomo called him and threatened to, quote/unquote, destroy him, after he spoke out about the scandal. And Assemblyman Ron Kim joins us now. Welcome to the show, sir. Very nice to have you here today.
RON KIM: Thank you for having me on.
BEHAR: Yes. Early on in the pandemic, Governor Cuomo got backlash for returning coronavirus patients to nursing homes. That was the first thing, instead of keeping them in the hospital. He later reversed that order, but now he's in hot water again for undercounting the nursing home deaths by as much as 50%, and he’s being accused of a coverup which he denies. Now you publicly criticized him for this, and then he called you. Tell us what happened after he called you or when he called you.
(....)
SARA HAINES: Well, you hired a lawyer in the wake of this call. Why? What exactly did you understand Cuomo to be asking you to do?
(....)
MEGHAN MCCAIN: You know, assemblyman, this is personal for you. Your Queens district has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and your uncle actually passed from presumed covid in a nursing home last year. Mayor de Blasio called this story, quote, “classic Andrew Cuomo”, and said the bullying is nothing new. In fact there are reports that you weren't the only lawmaker to receive threats like this. Has Governor Cuomo made threats like this before to your knowledge, and why do you think it took so long for people to finally come to this story?
KIM: Yeah, Cuomo is an abuser. He has abused his powers. Abusers are cowards, and he's worse than T.J. Ducklo. The governor’s abuse is not unique to me and I would like to point out that his staff even has previously called three of my colleagues who are young women [bleeped out]-- the New York Times. But because of the violence against women is normalized, it's basically caused a stir. So I'm going to use this time today to highlight it though because there are outspoken women in New York state who have taken this abuse as well, and don't get the support that they rightfully deserve.
ANA NAVARRO: Assemblyman, I'm from Florida, and I think like a lot of our viewers, I don't know the back story or the nuances or history here, but Governor Cuomo says he has had a long and hostile relationship with you, and a senior aide who says he was in the room with Cuomo during the call claims you're lying about the conversation. He also said it was part of a years' long pattern of lies by you against this administration. How do you respond to that? What's your response?
(....)
SUNNY HOSTIN: I'm very interested in finding out what the federal investigations of this scandal will determine, and I'm so sorry for your loss. I too lost some family members to COVID during this crisis. I want to ask you this though. The Trump administration and its coronavirus task force led by Vice President Pence with a separate team led by Jared Kushner had such a limited federal pandemic response, and rather than have the federal government involved, the administration decided to have states largely fend for themselves. Sometimes even pitting the states against each other for resources. Do you think the Trump administration bears any responsibility for this scandal and crisis?
(.…)
MCCAIN: Well, assemblyman Kim, I think that Cuomo is a ghoul who should step down after everything that has happened. I can't believe the media had let him get away with it as long as they did, but now you're working with other lawmakers to help strip him of his expanded pandemic emergency powers, but the Republicans want to form a bipartisan impeachment commission to gather facts and make a recommendation. Do you think Cuomo should be impeached and would there be Democratic support for that as well?
