23 November 2021: Editorial - Cuomo's Top Staffers Helped Author Deadly Directive

The book report: In zeroing in on Cuomo’s use of official staff to write his book, the Assembly impeachment report does a public service

The editors of the New York Daily News focus on a bit of testimony on the authorship of the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive contained within the New York Assembly impeachment probe report:

As to the games played with COVID nursing home death numbers, the report contains fewer revelations, though there are two troubling ones: The only Health Department professional on the state’s COVID task force, DOH Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, “did not have regular meetings” with Cuomo and “found it difficult to speak directly” with him during the pandemic. And when Zucker testified before the state Senate, a Cuomo staffer wrote him a message on a whiteboard suggesting he say the infamous March 25 nursing home directive was written by his agency without the involvement of the Executive Chamber. That would’ve been an under-oath lie; thankfully, Zucker didn’t follow the advice.

This passage may help explain why Zucker was allowed to resign rather than be fired after Andrew M. Cuomo resigned.