Janice Dean reacts to Chris Cuomo firing, demands apology from CNN

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CNN officially terminates Chris Cuomo | Breaking

CNN issued a statement on termination of Chris Cuomo after conducting review of anchor aiding brother's defense

Janice Dean responded to Chris Cuomo's firing from CNN Saturday after new details emerged regarding the former CNN host's involvement in his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's scandals, calling on the network to apologize to the women they "helped smear" and the families they "insulted" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scandal-plagued network said that their former star host was terminated "effective immediately" after they consulted with "a respected law firm" following "new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother's defense."

"CNN needs to issue an apology to all the women they helped smear and to all the families who they insulted by promoting those two brothers during the height of the pandemic when thousands were dying. Shame on them," Dean tweeted. 

Text messages released by New York Attorney General's Tish James' office showed that the former CNN host not only provided guidance but was intimately involved in helping his brother by looking to find information on potential looming reports and on at least one accuser as the disgraced governor battled the sexual harassment allegations. 

Dean also reacted to the news in a tweet that included a screenshot of a past CNN interview between Chris and Andrew, saying, "So glad we will never see this again."

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According to information released by the attorney general, the former "Cuomo Prime Time" host told a top aide to his brother, Melissa DeRosa, "I have a lead on the wedding girl."

The text was sent after The New York Times reported on a sexual harassment allegation that occurred at a 2019 wedding. 

"I would never do oppo research on anybody alleging anything like this," Cuomo claimed to New York investigators. "And I was never aware of anything like what you're suggesting, nor did I ever participate in, nor did I ever suggest, nor would I ever tolerate anything like what you're suggesting."

The CNN anchor apologized in May for his involvement in helping his governor brother. 

"It was a mistake," he said at the time. "When my brother's situation became turbulent, being looped into calls with other friends of his and advisors that did include some of his staff — I understand why that was a problem for CNN."

Fox News' senior meteorologist became a vocal critic of the disgraced former New York governor after her in-laws' deaths, Michael "Mickey" and Dolores "Dee" Newman, in care facilities during the pandemic. 

"They tried to silence my voice. Which made me want to speak louder," she said. 

Dee and Mickey Newman and one of their grandsons. (Courtesy Janice Dean)

When he was governor, Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order on March 25, 2020, which effectively prohibited nursing homes from denying admission of patients based on a positive COVID-19 status. Critics, including Dean, have since argued that this order caused hundreds, if not thousands, of unnecessary deaths. 

At the time it was issued, the order was met with pushback from the medical community. 

AMDA, a respected peer-reviewed medical journal, said the day after Cuomo's order, in a statement: "[Y]esterday’s New York State Department of Health advisory on hospital discharges and admissions to nursing home, stating that nursing home operators must accept COVID-19 patients who are discharged from hospitals, is ill advised … [New York's] advisory … should not become a template for states’ response to COVID-19 … We find the New York State advisory to be over-reaching, not consistent with science, unenforceable, and beyond all, not in the least consistent with patient safety principles."

Families who had relatives die from COVID-19 in nursing homes holds signs in front of a section of a memorial wall at a news conference in New York, Sunday, March 21, 2021. The  gathered to grieve but want an investigation into and accountability from Gov. Andrew Cuomo handing of nursing homes in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) ((AP Photo/Seth Wenig))

The order was finally rescinded on May 10, 2020.

An Associated Press investigation found that, while the order was in effect, at least 9,000 COVID-19 positive patients were sent to nursing homes. On or about the first year of the pandemic, 12,743 long-term care patients died from the Sars-Cov-2 virus. That number was far above the number that was reported initially, by about 50%, the New York Attorney general said. 

With the loss of her in-laws on the forefront of her mind, Dean began to speak out against the governor, and slammed him for not taking responsibility for his "disastrous decisions."

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"He needs to go to jail!," Dean said about the former governor.

Speaking about her in-laws, Dean said in a Fox News op-ed, "Mickey and Dee were real New Yorkers. They were not New Yorkers like the weak, spineless, coward of a governor who calls himself 'New York Tough' but has never taken any responsibility for his deadly COVID decisions. Yes, that guy. The one who blamed God, Mother Nature, the New York Post and Fox News for his bad leadership decisions during a deadly pandemic instead of himself."

Dee and Mickey Newman on their wedding day

"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 deaths of our elderly loved ones," she added.