Andrew Cuomo has a new job. Every Sunday at 5 p.m., you can tune into 77 WABC to hear the former New York governor host The Pulse of the People. He’ll be taking calls, discussing solutions, “cutting through the noise.” You know, the usual.
This is what redemption looks like now.
It’s been almost six years since my mother died in a New York nursing home, one of 15,000 elderly residents who perished after Cuomo’s March 25, 2020, order forced facilities to admit Covid-positive patients. Almost six years since I wrote about how his policy trapped her there, how they kept families away while the virus spread, how she died alone and terrified.
Since then, Cuomo has written a book celebrating his pandemic leadership. He collected $5 million for it. He ran for mayor of New York City, losing in both the primary and the general election to Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman he repeatedly attacked during the campaign. And now he’s got a radio show.
The man who allegedly lied to Congress about editing reports that covered up nursing home deaths wants to have “fact-based conversations.” The man currently under federal criminal investigation for reportedly making false statements gets a platform to discuss “solutions.” The station owner says they believe in “thoughtful discussion.”
I’m sure they do.
I’m not even shocked anymore. That’s the thing about watching powerful people fail upward — it’s a disturbing trend. Eventually you just stop being surprised. Disgraced politician lies low for a bit, tests the waters, then slowly rebuilds. A podcast here, a cable news hit there, maybe a radio show. Before you know it, they’re back in the mix, repackaged as an elder statesman with hard-won wisdom to share.
The media loves a comeback story — at least when it’s a Democrat comeback. Redemption is good for ratings. Everyone deserves a second chance, right? Forgiveness, growth, moving forward. These are virtues, after all.
Except my mother doesn’t get a second chance. And plenty of us who lost parents and grandparents are still waiting for something that looks like justice. We’re still replaying the phone calls, the gaslighting from Cuomo’s administration, and the nursing home runarounds, the moment we realized our loved ones were going to die and we couldn’t get to them.
For the past six years, I’ve worked with Voices for Seniors fighting for the accountability we haven’t seen yet. We’ve pushed for visitation rights so families are never locked out again. We’re fighting for cameras in nursing homes. We’ve fought for basic safety standards and dignity in long-term care. Small victories, unglamorous work. The kind of work that doesn’t make headlines or get you a radio show.
But Cuomo gets a radio show.
In April 2025, the House Oversight Committee referred him to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. The year-plus investigation found he personally edited the July 2020 state health report that undercounted nursing home deaths and blamed nursing home staff instead of his policy. When his former assistant identified his handwriting on the edits, he denied involvement in producing the report. Under oath.
The investigation allegedly revealed how Cuomo’s team deliberately excluded deaths of nursing home residents who died in hospitals from their count, hiding the true mortality rate. When pressed about undercounting deaths, Cuomo callously remarked: “Let’s say there’s a 3,000 differential, 2,500. Who cares? What difference does it make in any dimension to anyone about anything?”
That difference was someone’s mother. Someone’s father. Someone’s grandmother. My mother.
The DOJ opened a criminal investigation. It’s ongoing. Which in Washington-speak means it could go on forever while Cuomo builds his next act.
And that’s the part that gets me. Not that he’s shameless. I knew that already. But that it works. That stations will give him airtime. That listeners will call in. That in a few years, if the investigation quietly fizzles out, he’ll probably have a podcast network or a cable news show. Maybe he’ll run for something again.
Because that’s how it goes now. Accountability is for people without platforms and lawyers and media connections. For the rest, there are investigations that drag on, referrals that go nowhere, and Monday morning discussions about whether someone “deserves” redemption while he’s actively being investigated for allegedly lying to Congress about a policy that killed thousands.
The station promised “bipartisan conversation” and invited listeners to “be part of the discussion.” Here’s my contribution to the discussion: Maybe we should wait until the criminal investigation is over before we hand out radio shows. Maybe facing consequences should come before rehabilitation tours. Maybe some people haven’t earned the microphone back yet.
But that’s not how this works anymore, if it ever did.
So Cuomo has his show. He’ll take calls on Sunday afternoons and talk about cutting through the noise. And I’ll think about my mother, who went into a nursing home for knee surgery rehab and never came out. Who died alone because Cuomo closed the doors to families and opened them to a virus.
Almost six years without her. And he’s taking the pulse of the people.
Funny name for a show hosted by someone who never bothered to check the pulse in nursing homes.
Vivian Zayas is the cofounder of Voices for Seniors, a nonprofit advocating for families affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. She has been fighting for accountability and safety reforms in long-term care facilities for the past six years.
