Governor Nipsy Cuomo Explains Why He Sentenced Over 5000 Elderly Citizens to Certain Death: "Older people, vulnerable people, are going to die from this virus. That is going to happen."

Hero.

He just won't take responsibility for having sent covid-infected people back to nursing homes to infect everyone else. He begins sputtering out an Eric "Otter" Stratton series of rhetorical questions about who's really to blame.

Q. What do you say to families inside of nursing homes and they are looking for accountability? They would like to see justice. For example, I just interviewed a family of three siblings. They've had two nursing home losses within a few weeks of one another on two separate floors of the same facility here in Albany. They felt so much solace when you got up and talked about Matilda's Law. They said, "great, we're protected," our loved ones are going to be okay because of Matilda’s Law. And then their loved ones passed away because they couldn’t get the testing. So they are looking for accountability and they feel that they were failed. What's the comment to that?

CUOMO: Yeah. The comment is this, and I have those conversations all day long, with people who've lost people, right? We lost 139 people yesterday in hospitals. Who is accountable for those 139 deaths? How do we get justice for those families who had 139 deaths? What is justice? Who can we prosecute for those deaths? Nobody. Nobody. Mother Nature? God? Where did this virus come from?

What do we mean by the word "mean"? What is the word "is"?

People are going to die by this virus. That is the truth. Best hospital system on the globe, I believe we have. Best doctors, best nurses, who have responded like heroes. Every medication, ventilators, the health system wants for nothing. We worked it out so we always had available beds. No one was deprived of a medical bed or coverage in any way. And still people died. Still people died. Older people, vulnerable people, are going to die from this virus. That is going to happen. Despite whatever you do.

Not "despite" -- because of, Killer.

Because with all of our progress as a society, we can't keep everyone alive.

You could keep the sick isolated from the healthy.

But nah, that's some kind of witch doctor crank theory.

Despite everything you do. And older people are more vulnerable. And that is a fact and that is not going to change... Why do people die? Who is accountable?...

Apparently not you.

Q. [Inaudible] feel that if the mandates were currently in place right now, that we've all been talking about in here, were in place from the get-go, they feel that their loved ones might still be here.

CUOMO: I don’t…look people rationalize death in different ways. I don't think there is any logical rationale to say they would be alive today….

If you didn't sign a decree to make sure they got infected, they'd be alive. Period. That's pretty simple -- and logical.

You murdered them.

Well, we're not going to sit here while you badmouth the United States of America for condemning these elderly people to death. Gentlemen!

David Marcus has a good piece for the leftwing members of the Professional Managerial Class (including, obviously, hyperpartisan "NeverTrump" Democrats) who never look at policy our outcomes, only "tone" and "norms:" that's how you get a ton of dead bodies while babbling about how well he presents himself at press conferences.

This reveals something interesting about the roles of tone and norms in politics and governance. Critics of Trump’s hyperbolic rhetorical style and willingness to say things that offend them seem to think that good tone and maintenance of norms by a politician indicates he is pursuing positive policies and in control of the situation, but this is often not the case. In fact, a polished tone more often elides failures than it symbolizes success.

Here's an example. Would Barack Obama have ever called the press "the enemy of the American people"? Certainly not. But would his administration spy on journalists? Absolutely, and it did. Would Obama cackle about political opponents going to jail? Not a chance. Would his administration try to send political opponents to jail? Yup.

To put it bluntly, Cuomo has not been an effective governor during this crisis, but he has played one on TV. At least in terms of early public opinion, that was enough.

posted by Ace at 12:28 PM

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