IN THE WAKE OF IMPEACHMENT – AT 7:52 P.M. ET:  It's President's Day.  It's also the first Monday after the farcical Senate trial of a private citizen who used to be president.  And what do we find?

We find a Democratic Party so removed from reality that it wants to continue pursuing Trump.  They'll find a way, and leave the governing to a president surrounded by the failed emissaries of Barack Obama. 

But on the Republican side, despite some bitter disagreements, I actually see a new energy, a determination to drive the party to victory in 2022.  Republicans have been divided and contentious at other times, leading Ronald Reagan, even before becoming president, to enunciate the "11th Commandment" for the party – thou shalt not speak ill of any other Republican.  The party got it together and put Reagan in the White House in 1980. 

Republicans in Congress are now demanding an accounting from Nancy Pelosi about what she knew, and when she knew, of the impending violence that struck Washington on January 6th.  This will not go away.  It's time we started questioning the self-righteous Democrats about their role in the upheavals that have struck this country in the last year, the Washington episode being only one. 

And in New York, we have a fascinating situation.  The man recently crowned "American's governor" by a fawning press is now revealed for what he really is – a deceitful two-face, a monumental incompetent in the battle against a raging pandemic.  This will grow.  Even Democrats are now getting on the anti-Andy bandwagon.  From Fox: 

Embattled Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted Monday that he should have moved sooner to release relevant data related to COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes amid mounting criticism of his administration’s handling of the scandal.

In his first press conference since reports surfaced that his office underreported or withheld critical information on nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, Cuomo said all relevant information was "fully, publicly and accurately reported." When asked if he felt the need to apologize, the New York governor said his team’s failure to publicly address concerns created a "void" that allowed the spread of "conspiracy theories."

"We made a mistake in creating the void," Cuomo said. "We made a mistake in creating the void when we didn't provide information, it allowed press people, cynics, politicians to fill a void."

Cuomo has faced calls to resign since the Associated Press reported his administration had significantly underreported the number of recovering COVID-19 patients who were sent back to nursing homes to recover under a controversial order he implemented last March. The Associated Press found that nearly 15,000 long-term care patients died of COVID-19 at nursing homes, up from the roughly 8,500 deaths previously disclosed.

Criticism intensified after Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa admitted during a private call that the administration withheld data requested by New York State legislatures because they worried it could be "used against us" by the Justice Department under then-President Donald Trump.

Revelations regarding the withheld data triggered a bipartisan outcry, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio among the local lawmakers who have called for Cuomo to be stripped of his emergency powers. Lawmakers granted Cuomo sweeping authority to enact orders and alter laws without legislative approval at the pandemic’s onset last March.

When asked about the push to remove his emergency powers, Cuomo noted the state legislature could overrule any of his executive actions by vote, but had yet to do so since the pandemic began.
Cuomo argued a "toxic political environment" has contributed to the backlash against his administration in recent days. The governor said his team "paused" a state request for data in order to focus on fulfilling the Justice Department’s request.

COMMENT:  The evolving scandal is becoming a press scandal as well, with observers asking how the press could have not realized something very bad was going on.  Press bias is showing its ugly face, and demonstrating how damaging it really is.

There is talk among Republicans of removing Cuomo from office.  I doubt it will happen, but I doubt Cuomo has much of a future in politics.  He loved basking in the sun of favorable TV coverage.  Now he faces the darkness of political abandonment.  He will not be president.  Presiding over needless death is not a qualification for office.

February 15, 2021