One of the most inexcusable aspects of the coverage surrounding the Wuhan virus pandemic has been the treatment of Andrew Cuomo. The New York Governor has been widely praised for his daily briefings and lauded as a bastion of empathy. In fact, in a show of just how powerful false media narratives can be, Cuomo enjoys wide approval during this time while other governors who have far outperformed him on every objective level have seen declines.

Of course, the reality is much different than the picture the media paint. Cuomo’s response to the virus has been nothing short of disastrous, to the point where if he were actually trying to make things worse, you’d have to ask yourself what he’d be doing differently.

For example, a recent study says that around 65% of cases throughout the United States can be traced back to New York.

Researchers estimate infections spreading from New York account for 60 to 65% of the sequenced viruses across the country. https://t.co/s8w5usMnkZ via @nytimes

— NYSHealth Foundation (@nys_health) May 11, 2020

Why is this Cuomo’s fault? There are several reasons.

One, Cuomo refused to close the subways, one of the chief transporters of the virus early on. The excuse was that essential workers needed them, yet no system of screening riders was put in place and they remained in heavy use. Had they limited ridership, social distancing could have been observed by those needing to get to hospitals and city service jobs. Cuomo also waited until April 29th to finally disinfect the subways. He waited months, allowing the virus to propagate unfettered, before doing one of the most simple things that could be done.

But it wasn’t just Cuomo’s response in the city that helped cause a national outbreak. When other states observed that quarantining those traveling from New York would be smart, Cuomo threatened to sue those states. He also claimed it would be an “act of war” for the President to put any kind of quarantine in place regarding parts of New York City. For the entire month of March, Cuomo fought measures to stop the spread that was emanating from his state.

All the while, we’ve seen the press fawn over idiocy like this.

This is just straight-up lying. If he actually believed in the single-factor analysis of risk aversion, he could not present a reopening plan until covid-19 cases hit zero. https://t.co/rW9LYrQzSc

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 7, 2020

Cuomo has made his family a centerpiece of his emotional appeals, often citing his mother as being at risk. While that’s all well and good, his policies put the elderly in grave danger, causing possibly tens of thousands of preventable deaths.

Here is Andrew Cuomo’s March 25th executive order requiring nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients pic.twitter.com/RnxsJKBgQG

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 11, 2020

It wasn’t until yesterday that Cuomo finally reversed that disastrous order, one which people were waving the red flag on for over a month. In the meantime, nursing homes saw new outbreaks and large scale deaths.

What was Cuomo’s response? To blame the nursing homes for his incompetence. He sent his surrogates out to claim that the problem was a lack of adequate staffing. Meanwhile, more people have died in just New York nursing homes than total deaths combined in any other state except one (New Jersey).

But you wouldn’t know any of this, at least not in any detail, if your only sources of news were CNN and The New York Times. The media have run a gaslighting campaign to rival anything prior, propping up Cuomo as a bastion of leadership despite his incredible failings. Just today, the media were still trying to go after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who in comparison to Cuomo has done 10x the job in protecting his state.

Does Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis know what he’s doing? We’re about to find out. https://t.co/Env4nS0enQ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 11, 2020

Where are all the articles questioning whether Cuomo knows what he’s doing? A credible news industry would be exposing the corruption and deadly decisionmaking in New York, but we don’t have one of those. Instead, we get Jennifer Rubin fainting over the governor and fluff pieces galore.

Regardless, the truth is getting out there. Cuomo’s leadership has been absolutely horrific during this time. There’s no amount of obfuscation or covering up that can change that. The idea that he has somehow raised his profile to one day run for president is laughable. This is a guy who should never hold public office again after his failures.