People told CNBC that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa and his brother Chris Cuomo, employed by CNN at the time, worked together behind the scenes to discredit Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean.
Dean has been a vocal critic of Andrew after his COVID policies kept her in-laws in a nursing home and them dying alone.
From CNBC:
Melissa DeRosa, who had served as secretary to the governor, was among the Cuomo aides who ripped Dean behind the scenes and sought to craft a public messaging strategy that would paint the Fox News personality as merely a right-wing commentator, people familiar with the effort told CNBC. Dean’s criticism of Cuomo stemmed mainly from the 2020 deaths of her husband’s parents, whom she said died of Covid in their elder-care facilities.It remains unclear if DeRosa or Cuomo’s team ever went ahead with initiating such a plan.Andrew Cuomo himself was present during some of the strategy sessions during which Dean was mentioned, one of the people said. These sessions mainly focused on the governor’s response to Covid.
(BTW, CNBC. Dean is not just a Fox News personality. She is the network’s SENIOR meteorologist.)
CNBC reached out to Andrew’s spokesman:
Andrew Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told CNBC that he didn’t know whether Chris Cuomo was being asked to look into Dean. He denied that the strategy sessions were focused on her. He also said the governor’s office’s response to Dean’s criticisms was handled by the press office.“On Chris. No idea. We had no ‘strategy sessions’ about Janice Dean and to the extent that the press office had to respond to something she said, it was handled by the press office and did not rise to the level of something the governor would be engaged with,” Azzopardi initially told CNBC on Friday in an email.Later Azzopardi clarified to CNBC in a follow up email after publication of this story.“When I said no idea re: Chris I meant I had no idea what you were talking about. If the question is did we ask him to look into her, the answer is no,” he explained.
Andrew resigned after the state’s attorney general’s investigation detailed “more than 10 instances of alleged misconduct by” the former governor.
CNN fired Chris after documents revealed he used his media resources to dig up dirt on the females who accused Andrew of sexual misconduct.
Dean has also always insisted Andrew should have lost his job over his COVID policies. The state and the DOJ have investigations into those policies along with his memoir where he gushed over himself over his handling of the virus.
Dean told CNBC:
“As I have said from day one, this was never about politics. I watched first-hand how the governor’s office treated grieving families trying to get answers about the March 25th 2020 executive order to admit over 9,000 Covid positive patients into nursing homes. Instead of addressing our concerns or expressing their condolences, Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi called us a ‘death cult’ and told my sister in law to ‘get a life’ not long after both her parents died,” Dean told CNBC on Friday.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY