Mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo bailed on a deliberate go to Friday to a Queens senior middle as dozens of raging protesters have been anticipated to confront the ex-gov over his botched dealing with of the nursing properties in the course of the pandemic.
About 25 protesters marched in entrance of Peter Cardella Senior Residents Heart in Ridgewood for over an hour as they eagerly waited to face Cuomo over his administration’s controversial directive to ship contaminated COVID-19 sufferers into nursing properties — which resulted in 1000’s of deaths.
“I’m still trying to process and come to terms with how to prevent that [a pandemic] from happening again, but I’m pretty dismayed that Andrew Cuomo has the gall to run for mayor,” stated Dr. Damien Archbold, an anesthesiologist at Elmhurst Hospital, advised The Submit.
“I have this moral indignation that Cuomo’s running for mayor of New York City after he sold out the city.”
Cuomo was initially scheduled to hit the senior residents middle on the marketing campaign path — prompting the group to hurry to the constructing.
“I like what you guys are doing, where can I get a sign?” one lady requested earlier than becoming a member of their ranks.
Throughout the road, a neighbor yelled: “Hold up your signs so I can take a picture. F–k that guy!”
The marketing campaign claims the previous governor, who resigned amid a sequence of scandals, had no plans to indicate up with the occasion being cancelled days in the past.
Nonetheless, two employees within the senior middle advised The Submit the marketing campaign pulled the plug Friday morning.
The middle just isn’t a nursing residence — seniors go to the constructing to socialize, however don’t dwell or sleep within the constructing.
Protesters, nevertheless, considered Cuomo’s go to to an aged facility as disingenuous after his deadly COVID-19 insurance policies allowed the virus to tear via nursing properties on the top of the pandemic — a duty he has constantly declined to acknowledge.
Daniel Arbeeny, who attended the rally with We Care Memorial Wall, a gaggle devoted to “exposing Cuomo’s nursing home death cover-up,” stated he was protesting in reminiscence of the family members he misplaced in the course of the pandemic.
The Arbeeny household misplaced 4 members in a single week, together with his beloved father.
In a tweet, one other activist group, VoicesForSeniors, merely stated: “Coward can’t face us!”
“We want the truth. We want the people to know what happened, and we want answers,” Arbeeny stated.
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa’s group additionally confirmed up upon listening to of the demonstration, together with his marketing campaign advisor Sharon Liao telling The Submit: “Cuomo made a very wrong decision during the pandemic to send the patients of COVID-19 to the nursing homes. 15,000 people died because of his mistake, and we just don’t think he’s worthy of being the mayor.”
“I don’t care about the sexual harassment, this is real life. This is a more serious matter, we care about life,” she continued.
When requested what she would say to Cuomo if he have been right here immediately, Liao stated: “Please stop ruining our city. If he ruined New York State when he was the governor, imagine in New York City, which is much more complicated.”
Cuomo has skirted blame for the roughly 15,000 individuals who died in nursing properties throughout the state in the course of the pandemic, which many have traced again to the then-Governor’s determination to shuttle contaminated sufferers into the services.
In March, Cuomo provided a half-baked apology when requested if he owned relations of those that died an apology, saying as an alternative: “I’m sorry for what they had to go through.”
Regardless of criticism of his nursing residence choices, Cuomo is presently main the polls for the Democratic nomination for mayor in subsequent month’s main vote over second place rival Zohran Mamdani.
