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.
UFOA Board of Directors,
As you debate the difficult and complex decision of candidate endorsements, I wanted to express to my opposition to Andrew Cuomo’s candidacy, or any attempt by him to return to public office.
Disgraced former Gov. Cuomo is corrupt, dishonest and uses well-known intimidation tactics to get his way, which is something my family and I have never bowed to. Let me explain.
During the pandemic of 2020, we were all given direct orders to lock down and do everything we could to stay away from the Covid-19 virus.
While we were in quarantine, we could no longer visit, nor 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, while my mother, Dolores, had just moved to an assisted living facility in a double room waiting for her husband of almost 60 years to get well enough to join her.
The illnesses that brought them to care facilities could not have come at a worse time. My parents died within 2-1/2 weeks of each other, and they died alone.
At the time, we had no idea 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 my parents.
We are not angry simply because an order was issued doing a chaotic and confusing time.
We are angry for the reasons the March 25 order was sent out, which was designed to be in the best interests of healthcare executives and not in the best interest of an aging population with compromised immune systems.
These decisions were based on politics and exacting control on the population, as opposed to science and public benefit.
For instance, the USS Comfort and the Javits Center stayed virtually empty during the crisis, while hospitals were packed with Covid patients well beyond capacity. No satisfactory answer was ever given.
Cuomo had us all fooled — beginning with his version of fireside chats. His daily pep talks were watched by the whole country and he did not see it as an opportunity to truly lead in crisis, but to set up his next political leap.
We found out that in the middle of the pandemic, he was writing his so-called leadership book, and on the public dime. With death tolls spiking, Cuomo thought the best use of his time and staff resources was self-aggrandizement.
This was not the only devastating leadership mistake that Andrew Cuomo made with his executive powers. He shut down businesses and churches, and kept our children out of school for over a year.
He mandated that our responders get vaccinated or be fired even though all of these brave men and women risked their lives and their health in the beginning of the pandemic. Many of them had already contracted Covid and had natural immunity.
I must add, in the spirit of full disclosure, that I filed a complaint in March 2023 (Newman v. Cuomo), as lead plaintiff, on behalf of my family in Brooklyn federal court against Andrew Cuomo.
I would also like to remind you that Cuomo left office in disgrace during serious sexual misconduct allegations, but his star was falling well before that thanks to some very vocal family members of nursing home victims, of whom my sister and wife are well known.
As an active battalion chief with 29 years of service to the FDNY, I hope that my letter will make you think twice before endorsing a man that does not care about the FDNY, its members, nor the residents of New York City. Do not be intimidated by him.
