At Last, Delayed Justice for Andrew Cuomo | Opinion

I can't tell you how many people told me it would never happen.

Lawmakers, friends and reporters in the media said he was Teflon. One anchor of a local news program told me in confidence that in Albany, they called him "The Terminator."

Nothing could destroy him. I was told to watch my back. This man was notoriously vindictive and would stop at nothing to punish those who dared to go against him.

Despite the warnings, I never gave up believing that if I somehow kept reminding people of the tragedy that transpired across New York nursing homes last spring, taking the lives of over 15,000 seniors including my husband's parents, maybe it would start to sink in.

But it ended up not being the elderly, who unknowingly risked their lives due to the Teflon governor's brazenness. It ended up being the brave women who came forward about his harassment, most of which was sexual in nature. One former employee accused him of outright assault.

Regardless of what the ultimate reason for his downfall was, the downfall stems from the power that this man has been abusing for over a decade.

Whether we're talking about him ordering over 9,000 COVID-positive patients into nursing homes, covering up the total death toll that followed in order to hawk a $5 million book, how he doled out state-funded COVID tests to his buddies at a time when long-term care facilities weren't allowed to use them or his awful treatment of women, it all comes back to power for Andrew Cuomo.

Finally, Attorney General Letitia James released her report last Tuesday about Cuomo's pervasive predatory and perverted behavior, and the countdown clock began. Impeachment proceedings finally began to move after months of stonewalling in Albany.

Members of Cuomo's staff were resigning, jumping off the sinking ship like rats. His coffers that raised millions of dollars for his re-election campaign were closing up.

A week later, the leader of New York had an announcement to make. The man who said he was a fighter until the end was giving up the fight. Mr. "New York Tough" couldn't, at the end of the day, stand the heat.

But let's be honest, he didn't have much of a choice. He had nowhere to hide, and no real friends to lean on.

It's hard not to look back on the enormous mountain we began climbing last year when we set out to hold the governor responsible for the tragic nursing home deaths of our elderly loved ones.

We had everything stacked against us. At the time, our governor was arguably one of the most powerful politicians in American history. He was being hailed as a possible future president and was celebrated by the media and celebrities alike.

For some, that might've made them stop trying. For me, it persuaded me to speak louder and keep going.

And here we are. A year and a half later.

After his New York Times-bestselling book about leadership he most likely wrote with state resources during a pandemic and his Emmy Award-winning performance, Andrew Cuomo is stepping aside. It is justice long overdue.

But a resignation is not accountability, and there are still many investigations that must be completed in due time. It is Cuomo's actions, after all, that led to the deaths of thousands of our greatest generation.

I don't care where he goes, or what he does after this. But I do care about all those who never had a chance to tell their stories or to testify in a court of law. And our loved ones who unknowingly risked their lives to a virus that set fire to their homes—who ultimately died alone.

They deserve justice, and for that I will continue to shine a spotlight on something that deserves our attention—instead of on the man who wanted the spotlight all for himself.

Janice Dean is the senior meteorologist at FOX News.

The views in this article are the writer's own.