Rival rips Andrew Cuomos handling of COVID, in tribute to veteran dad who died in hospital during shutdown

Mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams ripped rival Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis — as she tearfully remembered the injustice of her military veteran father’s death in a hospital during the shutdown.Adams on Thursday criticized Democratic Party primary frontrunner Cuomo for his “redemption” campaign to return to office several years after resigning as state governor while embroiled in scandal.“This past Easter Andrew Cuomo campaigned in a church,” said Adams, who is now serving as City Council president.“Recounting this chapter in New York’s past he said: ‘You hit us with COVID, life and death, we do what they said was impossible, and we save lives.’“His words stayed with me.

Because I remember begging the governor’s office to send life saving vaccines to my community,” Adams told reporters at a news conference at Elmhurst Hospital.“And for weeks and months, our request was denied no matter what we said.

Because the site where the vaccines were supposed to go was run by then-Mayor de Blasio, the former governor’s political enemy.”She tied the bickering to the death of her father Irvin Eadie, who died of COVID-19 in Long Island Jewish Hospital May 22, 2020 before the vaccine was developed.She said didn’t take her UPS driver and Air Force military veteran dad to Elmhurst — even though it was the closest hospital to his Jackson Heights home — because it was overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and considered the local epicenter of the pandemic.“People only go to Elmhurst to die,” a tearful Adams claimed the EMTs told her when her father was being taken for medical treatment.She could not visit him in the hospital, hold a military funeral service at his beloved St.Mark AME church or a hold ceremony at Calverton National Cemetery because of pandemic restrictions, she added.Cuomo and de Blasio feud over lags in vaccine distribution and the control of distribution sites “punished New Yorkers,” Adams said.“His...