Fox News has made a new hire that's already drawing some fire. The network has announced that it is picking up former Andrew Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa as a contributor.

DeRosa will appear across Fox News programming and participate in the network's new podcast, "the Girls," which debuts Oct. 1. 

The premiere lineup includes Rachel Campos-Duffy, Harris Faulkner, Kat Timpf, former ESPN host Samantha Ponder, and DeRosa.

But Fox's announcement describes DeRosa simply as a "veteran democratic strategist" who held senior positions in former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration and became the state's first female secretary to the governor.

That leaves out quite a bit of history, as the Daily Caller points out. DeRosa was one of Cuomo's most powerful aides during the COVID pandemic and became a central figure in the scandal surrounding New York's reporting of nursing home deaths.

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In February 2021, DeRosa spoke privately with Democratic state lawmakers about the administration's failure to provide them with nursing home death data. According to reporting on the call, DeRosa explained that officials feared information they released could be used against them by the Trump administration's Justice Department.

"We were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation," DeRosa said.

She also apologized to Democrat lawmakers for the political position the administration had put them in.

"I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair," DeRosa said. "It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans."

A 2021 investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that the state Department of Health had undercounted nursing home resident deaths by as much as 50 percent in some publicly reported data because it did not include residents who were transferred to hospitals and died there.

Subsequent reporting also revealed that top Cuomo aides were involved in altering a state Health Department report on nursing home deaths. The New York State Assembly's impeachment investigation later concluded that Cuomo's office substantially revised the report and that the published version omitted thousands of deaths of nursing home residents who died outside nursing facilities.

Interestingly, DeRosa has since become an outspoken critic of the Democrat Party's socialist wing, repeatedly going after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other politicians aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

In June, she compared socialist candidates attempting to operate within the Democrat Party to "parasites."

"They cannot win on their own by creating their own party, so they are going to latch onto the Democratic Party and feed off of it, with the overall goal of taking it over and killing it," DeRosa said.

She has also sharply criticized Mamdani over Israel and antisemitism. Those positions have helped make DeRosa a recurring presence on Fox, but they haven't erased the Cuomo years — not for everyone, at least.

And one former Fox personality isn't letting anyone forget them. Janice Dean, who retired from Fox News in July after 22 years at the network, blasted the hiring Monday.

"Just a reminder: Melissa DeRosa helped smear the women who came forward about Andrew Cuomo's harassment, and played a hand in undercounting nursing home deaths during COVID," Dean wrote on X. "Also tried to silence my advocacy."

Conservative author Matt Palumbo also called the hiring "truly disgraceful."

Dean announced her retirement on "Fox & Friends" on July 10, ending a 22-year run at the network. During an emotional farewell, Dean said the demanding early-morning schedule was a major factor and that she wanted more time with her sons. 

Fox marked her departure by looking back at the personal milestones she had shared with viewers, including her pregnancies, multiple sclerosis diagnosis and the deaths of her in-laws during COVID.

Fox, meanwhile, is emphasizing what DeRosa brings to its new program. 

"The Girls is a natural addition to our growing podcast portfolio," Fox News Digital and New Media President Porter Berry said, adding that the network wants to create "new opportunities for our audience to engage with our content."

Executive Vice President Megan Albano promised a "no-holds-barred format" featuring women with different perspectives. 

DeRosa celebrated the announcement herself, saying she was "excited to officially join" Fox News as a contributor.