6 May 2021: Interview with Assemblyman Ron Kim

Ron Kim Outlines Legislative Priorities for New York as State Recovers from Pandemic

This timeline entry is lengthy, given the responses that Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) provided to questions asked by Newsweek's Meghan Roos, where we're focusing our coverage of Kim's comments as they relate to Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals. In this first excerpt, he identifies some of the factors that allowed the Cuomo administration's cover-up of the full extent of COVID deaths among New York nursing home residents to become established:

Governor Cuomo recently signed legislation you have pushed for that peels back immunity protections for nursing homes implemented in the early days of the pandemic. Why was this such a vital piece of legislation for you?

It was a win for the 15,000-plus families who lost their loved ones and community groups that recognize giving out broad corporate immunity—to nursing home operators, CEOs and the business behind the facilities at the peak of the pandemic—served as a disincentive for these businesses to invest any more dollars to save people's lives. And that's exactly what happened.

The moment they received this broad immunity last April, they no longer felt the need to spend every dollar they had on PPE and hiring staff to provide social distancing protocols in these facilities. Coupled with the governor's mandate to ban people and families from entering these facilities, and also to waive medical-keeping records, it was a combination of failed policies that led to unnecessary deaths, while giving the businesses 'Get Out of Jail Free' cards at the peak of the pandemic.

When the government and the state fails to protect vulnerable members in places like nursing homes, the one recourse families and residents and patients have are the courts and an individual right to recourse. The governor took that away from them retroactively: he put the bill in April but he went retroactively to March. So patients or residents who thought that they had recourse, their rights were taken away.

This second excerpt gets to the toxic culture Governor Cuomo has promoted while in office, including trying to bully elected officials into participating in his cover-up:

You made headlines earlier this year when you accused Governor Cuomo of using bullying tactics against legislators like yourself. Has that always been your experience with the governor?

I think most politicians in New York, as well as the press, have known about his bullying tactics and his character. It was an open secret for all of us. Everyone talked about it. It was notorious how he treated people.

For most of us, it's not the bullying that we were concerned about—it's him escaping accountability for his abuse of power. I think there's a difference between him being abusive and just being a bully to lawmakers and his peers. The moment that he became abusive with me is when he asked me to lie to cover up for his top aide who had admitted to possibly obstructing justice for his administration. That was a clear line that he crossed that could not be undone. And the series of credible allegations that came out is a continuous reflection of his abuse of power and his abusive behavior, and that's why he needs to be held accountable.

I think we're at eight or nine credible women who have come forward already. And the nursing home data suppression—deflating public data to sell books and to hold on to this corporate immunity for his top donors—are clear indications of him abusing his power. Despite the wins for the people of New York in the budget, we need to be clear that he still needs to be held fully accountable for his abusive actions.

This third and final excerpt addresses his support for Governor Cuomo's impeachment from office:

You recently penned an op-ed for Newsweek arguing in favor of impeaching Governor Cuomo, but polling in March and early April suggested public opinion among New York voters is split on whether they want him removed from office. Do those indications of New Yorkers' split support for Governor Cuomo's removal from office change your position?

Last year, when I saw the bad policies that were resulting in unnecessary deaths in communities like mine, I was warned not to criticize the governor because, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, his ratings were off the charts. He was popular, I was facing re-election. I had a primary and a general election, and my consultants were warning me not to criticize the governor.

But I didn't care about the polling back then, and I don't look at the polls now. This is about families who lost their loved ones. There are 15,000-plus people who went through similar traumatic, painful experiences.

The sad part is, he had plenty of opportunities at the beginning of the pandemic to completely own up to some of the bad decisions and mistakes and move forward with us. We left plenty of space for him to do that, but he made the choice to lie, cover up, to create this national profile that he was the heroic COVID savior. It was all about his brand and image.

When he felt like the world was treating him like a hero, he wanted all the spotlight; he didn't want to credit any other people around him. But the moment he was facing criticism, accusations of obstruction of justice and facing serious charges, now he's trying to implicate all of us.

Compared to many politicians who have been long in power in New York's state government, we think Kim has a refreshing perspective.