Governor Cuomo called up NY Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, who’s been one of the biggest critics of his disastrous nursing home policies last year – and now the newly revealed cover-up – and threatened to destroy Kim if he didn’t put out a new statement lying to people about the cover-up. Kim lost his uncle last year in a nursing home due to COVID.
NY Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, whose uncle died in a NY nursing home: @NYGovCuomo called and "berated me, yelled at me. He told me that my career would be over [if I didn’t ] lie and … asking me [to cover up a] crime" pic.twitter.com/uHKopiIeDW
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 18, 2021
Cuomo threatened to destroy Kim if he didn’t lie and cover for Cuomo, berating him for his statement to the New York Post when they published the story on the cover-up.
Kim has apparently been all over the media about this phone call, and someone asked him to prove that Cuomo called him. He held up his phone to prove it.
On @fox5ny, @rosannascotto asks @rontkim to prove Cuomo and Co called him multiple times… he pulls out his phone and reveals “Cuomo” followed by several No IDs and staff text messages contacted him. pic.twitter.com/o9qaqjCHcX
— Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) February 18, 2021
Here’s more on this from CNN:
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.
Describing an alleged exchange with the governor that has not been previously reported, Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim told CNN that he received a call on his cell phone from the governor last week as he was bathing his children at home.
“Gov. Cuomo called me directly on Thursday to threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said. He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience,” Kim said. Cuomo proceeded to tell the assemblyman that “we’re in this business together and we don’t cross certain lines and he said I hadn’t seen his wrath and that he can destroy me,” according to Kim.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.”
Cuomo’s efforts to reach Kim appeared to continue through the weekend. Kim said he received multiple calls from a “No Caller ID” number, followed by messages from Cuomo aides saying that the governor would like to speak with him again. Kim said he did not return the phone calls. He has since hired a lawyer, telling CNN that he believed this was necessary following Cuomo’s first call which made him feel that the governor had asked him to lie about what had happened in last week’s virtual call. He said he has informed the governor’s office that any outreach should be made through his counsel.
Cuomo’s office claims he never threatened to destroy him and that he has three witnesses:
When CNN first reached out to Cuomo’s office for comment for this story on Tuesday, communications director Peter Ajemian did not directly respond to or deny Kim’s allegation of threats from the governor in a written statement. Late Tuesday, Ajemian said the office would send a clarifying statement. Ultimately, the office sent a statement from senior adviser Rich Azzopardi late Wednesday morning that said: “Kim’s assertion that the governor said he would ‘destroy him’ is false.”
“The Governor has three witnesses to the conversation. The operable words were to the effect of, ‘I am from Queens, too, and people still expect honor and integrity in politics,'” Azzopardi said.
Three witnesses? Yeah, right. Those would be people in Cuomo’s office, who were the ‘no id’ calls on his phone.
Cuomo is nothing but a lying scumbag and this phone call proves that the older Cuomo is just like his little bro Fredo. They are both despicable thugs who lie and threaten people who criticize them for said lies.