Chris Churchill
Bond between Fox News meteorologist, Dem assemblyman born in tragedy.
Janice Dean is a Fox News meteorologist. Ron Kim is a progressive assemblyman from Queens. The pair wouldn’t seem to have much in common. But in their tenacious opposition to Andrew Cuomo’s long attempt to hide the accurate total of nursing home deaths, Dean and Kim formed an influential partnership — and, ultimately, a friendship.
In part, the bond come from a shared tragedy. Dean, 50, lost her in-laws to COVID-19 in New York nursing homes. Kim, 41, lost an uncle living in a Queens nursing home to a suspected COVID-19 death.
In interviews, both said their personal connection to the issue, and each other, made them more determined to speak for other grieving families and to push for an accurate counting of nursing home deaths.
“We have this friendship based on loss,” said Dean, who got to know Kim at rallies and
events focused on nursing home issues. “I consider Ron a good friend, and it has nothing to do with politics. We just want justice for our family members.”
New York, as many of you know, didn’t count residents who were transferred to hospitals before they died as nursing home deaths. That undercount, unique among states, has been revealed as a deliberate deception that concealed the plight of an especially vulnerable population.
It was a lie perpetrated in a scrubbed Health Department report, in the governor’s daily briefings — even in Cuomo’s recent book. Eventually, after a report by Attorney General Letitia James highlighted the dishonesty, we learned the honest number was roughly 15,000 deaths, more than 60 percent higher than the state’s claim.
Dean and Kim, also critics of a controversial Health Department order that required nursing homes to accept COVID -19 patients, began beating the drum for truthful data many months ago. At the time, it was a lonely fight. Cuomo was riding high as a supposed hero of the pandemic. Few were willing to speak against him.
“Janice stood with me when nobody else would and kept the issue going when everyone else wanted to move past it,” Kim said. “She realized that, unlike so many of the families, she had this incredible platform and the ability to be heard.”
Dean, in turn, called Kim a hero. “He did something that most lawmakers wouldn’t have done,” she said. “He criticized the governor.”
Last month, Kim talked openly about the cost of that criticism, revealing that Cuomo had angrily threatened to “destroy” him during a phone call. “You haven’t seen my wrath,” the governor screamed, according to Kim.
Team Cuomo denies the account. But after Kim spoke out, the dam broke and other lawmakers also said they had been bullied. The accounts were too numerous to dismiss.
Those who have worked for Cuomo spoke up, too — including women who say they were sexually harassed by the governor. (Lindsey Boylan initially went public with allegations last fall but added more detail after Kim told his story.) One female employee says she was sexually assaulted by Cuomo at the governor’s mansion, a claim he also denies.
Suddenly, Cuomo’s political career is threatened. Prominent Democrats, including Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have called for his resignation. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie authorized an impeachment investigation.
Dean and Kim are pleased the governor is being called to account but said the nursing home scandal shouldn’t be overlooked. It is also a reason Cuomo should resign or be impeached, they say.
The FBI and U.S. attorney’s office are investigating the administration’s handling of nursing homes, but Kim said the Legislature should launch its own investigation that includes subpoenas related to the governor’s coronavirus book, “American Crisis,” for which he was paid, according to Vanity Fair, at least several million dollars.
Did the contract, Kim asked, provide Cuomo with a financial incentive to protect his national reputation by deceiving on nursing home deaths? And, Kim added, did campaign contributions influence the governor’s decision to grant nursing home owners immunity from lawsuits?
Kim sees addressing those questions, and others, as key to changing state government. Holding Cuomo to account, he said, will show the toxic, abusive and authoritarian culture encouraged by the governor is no longer acceptable, that it isn’t how state government should work.
Dean, meanwhile, doesn’t see the latest claims against Cuomo as distinct from the nursing home scandal. Both, Dean said, are about abuses of power showing. They show Cuomo is unfit for office.
“Sexual harassment is about power,” said Dean, who was among the women to allege harassment by Roger Ailes, the late CEO at Fox News. “It’s about making people feel uncomfortable and small.”
Cuomo seems determined to hang onto power, even if New York suffers as a result. Still, the governor’s status is undeniably diminished, thanks in no small part to Dean and Kim.
But you can bet he won’t thank them.