New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been pleading with lawmakers for support and even threatening political retribution against Democrats who have criticized him in an aggressive effort to contain political fallout from revelations that his administration had concealed the full extent of nursing home-related deaths during the Covid pandemic.
DeRosa is a top aide to the governor who came under fire last week after she told state lawmakers in a private virtual meeting that the state had delayed sharing with the legislature the full scope of the Covid-related death toll of New York's nursing home residents because of concerns about a potential federal investigation by the Department of Justice. (The governor's office has since released a partial transcript of the call.) Kim, a progressive representing Queens who has been among the most vocal critics of Cuomo's handling of nursing homes during the pandemic and believes his own uncle died from a presumed case of Covid in a nursing home last year, participated in that virtual call. During the meeting, Kim said he called on the governor to apologize to family members of those who died in assisted living facilities. When the New York Post first reported on DeRosa's controversial comments, he was one of the participants quoted in the piece criticizing those remarks.
"No man has ever spoken to me like that in my entire life," Kim said of his phone call with Cuomo. "At some point he tried to humiliate me, asking: 'Are you a lawyer? I didn't think so. You're not a lawyer.' It almost felt like in retrospect he was trying to bait me and anger me and say something inappropriate. I'm glad I didn't."
Kim's wife told CNN that she had overheard parts of Kim's phone call with Cuomo last week, and described the governor as "loud" and "angry." She said she heard Cuomo say, "Who do you think you are?" as well as the words, "my wrath," and that immediately after the phone call, her husband told her: "The governor threatened to destroy my life."