Andrew Cuomo was on Monday forced to cancel his Thanksgiving plans hours after saying his 89-year-old mom and and two daughters were coming to dinner.
The New York governor had told WAMC: ‘My mom is going to come up and two of my girls is the current plan. But the plans change. But that’s my plan.’
His comments sparked a fierce backlash online with Twitter users, including Meghan McCain, noting Cuomo had urged others to stay home over the holidays.
The Democrat’s office later confirmed he had canceled those plans, saying the governor will now work ‘given the current circumstances with COVID’.
Senior adviser Rich Azzopardi said: ‘As the Governor said, ‘The story is my mom is going to come up and two of my girls is the current plan, but the plans change. That’s my plan. I’m going to work — I’ve got a lot of work to do between now and Thanksgiving,’ and given the current circumstances with COVID, he will have to work through Thanksgiving and will not be seeing them.’
Azzopardi added: ‘Don’t tell his mom — she doesn’t know yet.’
The state was on Monday forced to reopen the Staten Island field hospital, at the South Beach Psychiatric Center, amid concerning COVID rates there with the number of hospitalizations tripling from 33 on November 2 to 91 on Sunday.
Across New York state the number of people hospitalized with the virus has more than doubled from 1,227 on November 2 to 2,724 on Sunday; more than 26,000 people have died since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Andrew Cuomo was on Monday forced to cancel his Thanksgiving plans hours after saying his 89-year-old mom, pictured together, and and two of his daughters were coming to dinner
The New York governor had told WAMC : ‘My mom is going to come up and two of my girls is the current plan. But the plans change. But that’s my plan’. He is pictured with his daughters, Michaela, far left, Cara, second left, and Mariah, right
The Democrat’s office later confirmed he had canceled his Thanksgiving plans. He is pictured enjoying dinner with his daughters Michaela, 23, Cara, 25, and Mariah, 25
Twitter users had been quick to condemn Cuomo, who has three daughters Michaela, 23, Cara, 25, and Mariah, 25, after he revealed his earlier plans.
The View panelist McCain wrote: ‘You’ve GOT to be kidding me.’
CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond said: ‘So first Gov. Cuomo urges people (wisely!) to limit Thanksgiving to people in their household. Now he invites his elderly mother & daughters over??’
Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham added: ‘Un-freaking-believable. Now more than ever, people are looking to elected leaders for signals on how to mitigate risk. Is it any wonder so many aren’t following health guidelines? And this is the allegedly pro-science party!’
Representative Elise Stefanik tweeted: ‘His arrogance and hypocrisy knows no bounds. Do as I say, not as I do.’
New York state has averaged nearly 5,500 new confirmed cases per day over the past seven days. Hospitals and nursing homes have reported 665 COVID-19 deaths in the state over the past 30 days — more than in July, August and September combined.
Cuomo’s comments sparked a fierce backlash online with Twitter users, including Meghan McCain, noting Cuomo had urged others to stay home over the holidays
New Yorkers must keep any Thanksgiving gatherings to 10 people but have been urged not to travel by Cuomo and the CDC.
The governor had said: ‘Your family sounds safe, doesn’t it? No, you won’t be safe. It’s an illusion. My sister loves me. My sister could infect me — not maliciously, but accidentally.’
He recalled story about one of his daughters crying that she could not come back home from Chicago for the holiday and had said: ‘My personal advice is you don’t have family gatherings — even for Thanksgiving.’
Cuomo also announced Monday he is reopening an emergency COVID-19 field hospital on Staten Island, the first such facility in the state to relaunch since the state partly tamed the pandemic over the summer.
‘The hospitals have contacted us, and they say they need emergency beds on Staten Island,’ Cuomo told reporters at a briefing at his Manhattan office Monday.
Staten Island has averaged 209 new cases of COVID-19 per day over the past seven days — up 86 percent from two weeks ago.
Cuomo on Monday accepted his Emmy for ‘masterful’ use of TV with his COVID-19 press conferences after being lauded by stars including Robert DeNiro, Billy Joel, Ben Stiller and Spike Lee.
The Democrat’s office later confirmed he had canceled those plans, saying the governor will now work ‘given the current circumstances with COVID’
Cuomo on Monday accepted his Emmy for ‘masterful’ use of TV with his COVID-19 press conferences after being lauded by stars including Robert DeNiro, Billy Joel, Ben Stiller and Spike Lee
The state was on Monday forced to reopen the Staten Island field hospital, at the South Beach Psychiatric Center, amid concerning COVID rates there with the number of hospitalizations tripling from 33 on November 2 to 91 on Sunday
He was last week slammed for being given the award when his state had by far the worst COVID problem of anywhere in the country and when he made decisions like sending thousands of elderly patients back into nursing homes which triggered thousands more deaths.
Despite that, Cuomo has written a book about the pandemic titled Lessons in Leadership and received the International Founders Emmy.
On Monday, he accepted it virtually after being praised by Bruce Paisner, International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, who said: ‘One man took it upon himself to use technology to spread information and tell citizens what to do.
‘Governor Cuomo’s daily press conferences were a whole new dimension of public education. He informed, he demanded and he calmed people down. No one who saw it will easily forget it.’
