Grieving family members who lost loved ones in New York nursing homes due to COVID-19 staged a mock funeral for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “leadership and integrity” on Sunday — but it was the prop they used to make their point that stole the show.

As reported by the New York Post, a silver casket was wheeled to the front of a Brooklyn nursing home, and 6,500 copies of the cover of Cuomo’s new book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” were dumped into it in protest of his COVID-19 policies.

In the case of the protesting families, Cuomo’s mandate requiring nursing homes to accept those recovering from the virus even if they still might be contagious was unconscionable.

The number of covers was equal to the roughly 6,500 people who have been reported killed by the coronavirus in nursing homes in the state, although the protesters said they believe the figure is much higher, principally due to COVID-infected nursing home patients who were moved to hospitals and subsequently died.

Is this genius, or what?

Casket outside Brooklyn nursing home filled with 6,500 covers of Cuomo’s book https://t.co/8ObXthSiPt

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) October 18, 2020

Incidentally, Cuomo’s book is described on Amazon thusly:

Governor Andrew Cuomo tells the riveting story of how he took charge in the fight against COVID-19 as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic, offering hard-won lessons in leadership and his vision for the path forward.

You mean how he “took charge” with the nursing home mandate, right? But it’s this “review” by The Washington Post that is laugh-out-loud hilarious:

“An impressive road map to dealing with a crisis as serious as any we have faced.”—The Washington Post

Maybe WaPo meant a road map different from the road map Cuomo used that led straight to New York nursing homes.

Outraged New Yorkers who lost family members in the state’s nursing homes staged a mock funeral for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) recent book, in which he touts his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, despite thousands of deaths among senior citizens. https://t.co/CLs5tn7XDA

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 18, 2020

Daniel Arbeeny, whose father died in the nursing home, told The Post:

“Ultimately we want an apology and we don’t want it to be buried and hidden and forgotten. Thousands upon thousands of people died — couldn’t have burials.”

“Fox & Friends” senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost both of her elderly in-laws to the virus, was among the protesters outside the Cobble Hill Health Center.

Grieving families to hold mock funeral for Cuomo's 'leadership and integrity' https://t.co/e21znevvxO

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) October 18, 2020

At first, Dean didn’t blame Cuomo:

“My mother-in-law got COVID in an elder-care facility but died in a hospital, [so] her number does not count” in New York’s nursing-home tally. “At the very beginning, I wouldn’t have blamed anyone. We were in the middle of a pandemic.

“But then I saw the governor on CNN and the various talk shows talking about his love life and talking about how he brought the curve down to nothing. The first thing he should have said was, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’’’

Dean blasted Cuomo last week for releasing a book on his handling of the pandemic, as reported by Fox News:

“I don’t know any governor in the middle of a pandemic that should release a book, especially this one. I have to tell you it just makes our grief worse to see him promoting a book like this and dodging the questions when he’s being asked.”

In August, Dean told “Fox and Friends” that Cuomo had not provided the exact numbers of those who died from COVID-19 in adult care facilities because “New York State does not count the numbers that we lost in hospitals from nursing homes”:

“We need those numbers to move forward and help change the laws. We need an independent bipartisan investigation that involves subpoena power so we can get the health commissioner on the hot seat and ask questions and get truthful answers.”

And during her comments about Cuomo’s book last week, Dean said “we still don’t have the total number of patients that died from COVID that were in nursing homes.”

Families who lost elderly loved ones to COVID plan mock funeral for Cuomo’s ‘leadership and integrity’ https://t.co/WQEz9bnJOd

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) October 18, 2020

As The Post reported, Cuomo has repeatedly defended his controversial order, despite bipartisan calls for an independent probe into whether the mandate caused more than 6,500 confirmed or presumed COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes statewide.

The bottom line.

Irrespective of the results of an independent probe, irrespective of the total number of deaths that can be attributed to Cuomo’s nursing facility mandate, the notion that this arrogant guy — with full knowledge that families are still grieving over loved ones lost as a result of his mandate — writes a book bragging about how “he took charge in the fight against COVID-19 as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic,” is repugnant. At best.

I’m not even sure Cuomo’s brother Fredo would stoop to that level.

Wait — of course, I am.