FDNY Battalion Chief Sean Newman’s parents Michael and Dolores Newman died in 2020 after then Gov. Cuomo’s executive order allowed hospitals to send COVID-19-infected seniors to long-term care facilities — which were compelled to accept them. Newman and his wife Janice Dean, senior meteorologist at Fox News Channel who have said their family was a victim of Cuomo’s “deadly leadership” have marked the void in their family every year since. Below,Newman tells the FDNY officers union why Cuomo is not the right candidate for mayor of New York City.
The UFOA Board of Directors
As you discuss the difficult and complex decision of candidate endorsements, I’d like to express my opposition to Andrew Cuomo’s candidacy and any attempt by him to return to public office.
Disgraced former Governor Cuomo is corrupt, dishonest, and employs well-known intimidation tactics to get his way, which my family and I have never accepted. Let me explain.
During the 2020 pandemic, we were all given direct orders to lock down and do everything possible to avoid the Covid-19 virus.
While we were quarantined, we were unable to visit or care for my elderly parents, who were in separate care facilities.
My father, Mickey, a retired member of the FDNY and the UFA, was in a nursing home rehab facility, and my mother, Dolores, had recently moved to an assisted living facility in a double room, waiting for her husband of nearly 60 years to recover enough to join her.
The illnesses that landed them in care facilities could not have come at a worse time. My parents died within two and a half weeks of each other, and they died alone.
We had no idea at the time that our former governor had issued a directive on March 25, 2020, to flood New York’s senior facilities with over 9,000 Covid patients, a decision that we believe could have killed our parents.
We are not angry because an order was issued during a chaotic and confusing period.
We are angry because the March 25 order was designed to benefit healthcare executives rather than an aging population with compromised immune systems.
These decisions were made for political reasons and to exert control over the population, rather than for scientific or public benefit.
For example, during the crisis, the USS Comfort and the Javits Center were virtually empty, whereas hospitals were overcrowded with Covid patients. No satisfactory answer was ever provided.
Cuomo had us all fooled, starting with his version of fireside chat. His daily pep talks were broadcast throughout the country, and he saw them as an opportunity to set the stage for his next political leap rather than to truly lead in times of crisis.
We discovered that, in the midst of the pandemic, he was writing his so-called leadership book on taxpayer dollars. With death tolls on the rise, Cuomo believed that self-promotion was the best use of his time and staff resources.
This was not Andrew Cuomo’s only disastrous leadership error with his executive powers. He closed down businesses and churches, and our children were kept out of school for more than a year.
He required our responders to get vaccinated or face termination, despite the fact that all of these brave men and women risked their lives and health at the start of the pandemic. Many of them had already contracted Covid and possessed natural immunity.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must state that in March 2023 (Newman v. Cuomo), I filed a complaint against Andrew Cuomo in Brooklyn federal court as lead plaintiff on behalf of my family.
I’d also like to point out that Cuomo resigned in disgrace after facing serious sexual misconduct allegations, but his star was already fading thanks to some outspoken family members of nursing home victims, including my sister and wife.
As an active battalion chief with 29 years of service to the FDNY, I hope my letter will make you reconsider endorsing a man who has no regard for the FDNY, its members, or the residents of New York City. Don’t be intimidated by him.
