Tara Reade: Cuomo brothers leave the scene, but US’ systemic problem remains

Someone recently asked me what it was like to speak out about a powerful person’s sexual misconduct in the US. Just what it’s like to be a whistleblower. Ask Julian Assange, who has paid a heavy price for exposing US crimes.

On Friday, the UK High Court granted the American government’s appeal over the refusal to extradite Assange, opening the door for his trial in the US under the Espionage Act, even though the WikiLeaks co-founder is an Australian. 

A shadow of darkness is now cast for journalistic freedom all over the world by this dire ruling. It is like watching the slow, public torture of this man in real time.

Whistleblowing about the powerful in America is like stepping into a gladiator ring where all the lions (media) are there to rip you apart for the entertainment of the crowd. 

In recent weeks, as a result of the Cuomo brothers’ sexual misconduct and corruption scandals, some consequences were finally rendered.

Chris Cuomo was exposed for using his anchor position and media connections to suppress his brother Andrew’s – the former New York governor – sexual misconduct allegations. Only when the NY attorney general’s criminal report was released publicly did CNN finally fire Chris Cuomo. Publisher HarperCollins followed quickly by canceling his book deal. This was days after Shelley Ross, Cuomo’s former ABC boss, accused him in an op-ed of sexually harassing her in 2005. Shortly after he was fired, the CNN anchor faced additional allegations.

As the waterfall of information pours out, it’s been revealed that Andrew Cuomo’s aides were using my case against Joe Biden as a template to suppress and attack other Cuomo survivors.

‘Most evil and corrupt governor ever’

Corruption has become America’s systemic problem. And even though Andrew Cuomo is no longer the governor of New York, his influence over politics and the devastating effects of his Covid response will be felt for a long time. In my recent conversation on ‘The Politics of Survival’ with Jennifer Harrison, the founder of Victims’ Rights NY, a political action committee to bring forward legislation to support violent crime victims, she outlined the turbulent reality of living under the corruption of Cuomo’s leadership in New York.

Jennifer became dedicated to victim advocacy after her boyfriend was murdered and the perpetrators got a light sentence. She has worked for over 16 years to advocate for violent crime victims and their families. Jennifer said: “I learned long ago how broken the system is and it is not always just for everyone.” This spurred Jennifer’s work to change legislation to be more victim-centered.

“On March 25, 2020, Andrew Cuomo gave an order we now call a death sentence when he ordered nursing homes to take Covid-positive patients even though there were other alternatives that the patients could have been on,” she said.

READ MORE: Chris Cuomo describes how thick-skinned he is after losing another show

The nursing homes scandal didn’t get much media attention at the time. “We were fighting very vigorously to get coverage, but the media is complicit in conspiracy to cover for him [Andrew Cuomo] and protect him,” she said. 

As a result of that decision, over 15,000 people died, including Jennifer’s step grandmother and her sister, Theresa Hagemeyer, 98, and Josephine Rachiele, 96. She and her sister had been working putting bolts in the planes that helped win World War II, Jennifer said. “Aunt Josie was an icon,” a real-life “Rosie the Riveter,” she said, adding that both sisters both died alone with no funeral, and that it was “a direct result of Cuomo’s directive.”  

Another vocal critic of Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic is Fox News meteorologist and host Janice Dean, whose husband lost his parents in March and April 2020 to Covid-19. Reportedly, Chris Cuomo as well as two of Andrew Cuomo’s aides sought to discredit Dean for speaking out on the nursing homes scandal.  

“Thank God for Janice Dean and for her large platform, because without that I don’t think that the attention that was paid to this situation would have been paid to it. Which is sad,” Jennifer said. 

Andrew Cuomo was hailed a great leader of his state by the unabashedly worshipful US corporate media over the course of the 2020 Covid lockdown. 

“There was no accountability and justice, every Democrat in this state is complicit with what happened to these senior citizens, these people that helped build the country. The Democrats voted against investigating him,” Jennifer said.

Subsequently, while he was under scrutiny, his staff admitted to purposely altering documents to hide the numbers. Cuomo eventually accepted the blame for the lack of transparency about New Yorkers’ Covid deaths in nursing homes, but hasn’t apologized. 

The Cuomo brothers were finally both thrown under the bus by the Democratic leadership, who could no longer cover for their misdeeds. The Biden administration tried to distance itself from their previously intertwined connections.

In Jennifer’s view, Andrew Cuomo was “the most evil and corrupt governor ever.”

As the stories unfold of how deep and dark the revelations are about the Cuomos’ wrongdoings, one has to turn their gaze to the systemic culture of the Biden administration that both Cuomos were enmeshed in. These corrupt practices are a systemic problem in America. The thirst to hold on to power by the political elites in the US has overridden the moral compass and humanity. Politics has evolved past bloodsport to an evil cancer infecting every branch of the US government, with the corporate media complicit and compliant to the most powerful.

It is time for US citizens to step into the proverbial gladiator’s ring and fight for truth in order to obtain collective justice and not fall into peril.