'ASKED TO LIE'
NY Gov Cuomo ‘berated & yelled’ at assemblyman saying career ‘would be over’ for exposing nursing home death cover up
NEW YORK Governor Andrew Cuomo has been accused of "berating and yelling" an assemblyman for exposing a nursing home death cover up.
Ron Kim, a state lawmaker, said Gov. Cuomo called him multiple times asking him to lie and said his career would be destroyed if he spoke out.
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Speaking in an interview to MSNBC on Thursday morning, Kim said: "Gov. Cuomo called me the next day at 8 p.m., while I was about to bathe my kids — I was with my wife.
"And for 10 minutes he berated me, he yelled at me, he told me that my career would be over, he’s been biting his tongue for months against me, and I had tonight — not tomorrow — tonight to issue a new statement, essentially asking me to lie."
Cuomo's office released from an adviser to the governor who was with Cuomo for the call that said Kim was lying about what transpired.
“At no time did anyone threaten to 'destroy' anyone with their 'wrath' nor engage in a 'coverup,'” the statement from the governor’s office said.
“That's beyond the pale and is unfortunately part of a years-long pattern of lies by Mr. Kim against this administration.”
"We did ask for Mr. Kim to do the honorable thing and put out a truthful statement after he told the Governor he was misquoted in a news article, which he said he tried to correct but the reporter refused.
"Kim said he would correct the story and then broke his word. No surprise."
It comes as the and the US Attorney’s office opened a probe on Wednesday into ’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, the reported.
Investigators are looking into the actions of Cuomo’s task force, which was formed last March and included his secretary Melissa DeRosa.
Cuomo is under fire after DeRosa privately admitted that his administration withheld nursing home death numbers fearing that they would be “used against us.”
The governor faced criticism for a March 25 Health Department directive that forced nursing homes to accept Covid-19 patients from hospitals no matter what their test results were.
That order led to more deaths and spreading of the virus, critics claim.
Cuomo’s office is apparently under investigation as State Assemblyman Ron Kim said the governor called him last Thursday and threatened to destroy him if he did not help minimize the scandal.
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Kim claimed that Cuomo told him to wrote a statement “to say that Melissa DeRosa said there was a federal investigation and they had to deal with that first,” the reported on Wednesday.
“The governor says, ‘Mr. Kim, are you an honorable man?’” the Democratic lawmaker said.
Kim recalled Cuomo telling him: “You have not seen my wrath. I have been biting my tongue for months. I can tell the whole world what a bad person you are and you will be finished."
“You will be destroyed,” Cuomo said, according to Kim.
Kim became a big Cuomo critic after his uncle, Son Kim, experienced coronavirus symptoms and died at a nursing home in April.
In a conference call on Wednesday, Kim told him he was misquoted in the Post’s report.
The governor also said that his administration has had a “long and hostile relationship” with Kim since 2015 when Kim helped create a law protecting nail salon workers but switched to fighting it allegedly to support business owners.
Cuomo’s senior adviser Rich Azzopardi said that “Mr. Kim is lying about his conversation with Governor Cuomo.”
“I know because I was one of three other people in the room when the phone call occurred," Azzopardi told Fox News.
"At no time did anyone threaten to 'destroy' anyone with their 'wrath' nor engage in a ‘coverup.’"
Azzopardi attributed the state assemblyman’s comments as “unfortunately part of a years-long pattern of lies by Mr. Kim against this administration.”
On Thursday morning, Mayor De Blasio told MSNBC's Morning Joe that the attack was "classic Andrew Cuomo".
"A lot of people in New York State have received those phone calls," De Blasio said.
"You know, the bullying is nothing new. I believe Ron Kim, and it's very, very sad – no public servant, no person who's telling the truth should be treated that way."
The New York Mayor went on to say that a full investigation would be needed "unquestionably".
"This is about thousands of people's lives. This is about our elders and there are families right now in New York State that lost a grandma, a grandpa, they lost an aunt or uncle, they're not sure what happened here," he added.
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Kim wrote a letter on Tuesday signed by eight Assembly Democrats, accusing Cuomo of obstructing justice at the federal level.
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The lawmaker from Queens also introduced legislation to take away Cuomo’s emergency powers during the pandemic.
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