This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated February 19, 2021
Attorney General Letitia James released information in January showing that COVID-19 fatalities from state adult care facilities had been underreported by as much as 50 percent. Last week, after a judge’s ruling, data from each facility was made public, showing the true extent of the misrepresentation.
In Brooklyn, where only five such deaths had been reported previously, the newly released information revealed that 131 of these residents have died. To be clear, total fatalities were not underreported, but 96% of those in Brooklyn’s adult care facilities were not associated with those homes because they occurred at a hospital. Obviously, it was necessary to know how many died after being infected in these facilities and the original reporting was misleading.
Senator Andrew Gounardes called for “full accountability,” adding that “the legislature needs to reconsider its broad grant of emergency powers to the governor.” I completely agree that this was unacceptable and there must be consequences. AG James, Senator Gounardes, myself, and every other Democrat I know have been unambiguous in condemning the governor for this.
Much more so than any policy position, this ability to hold members of your own party accountable for inexcusable actions seems to be the starkest difference between today’s Democratic and Republican parties.
The Senate impeachment trial of former president Trump just concluded and across the country, the Republican party has been issuing official censures, but the people they have decided to punish are members of their own party for not blindly supporting Trump.
Of the ten GOP House members who voted for impeachment, seven have been formally censured in their home states. Rep. Rice was censured by the South Carolina GOP. Rep. Meijer and Rep. Upton, by multiple Republican county committees in their Michigan districts.
“Much more so than any policy position, this ability to hold members of your own party accountable for inexcusable actions seems to be the starkest difference between today’s Democratic and Republican parties.”
In addition to being censured by the local GOP in Illinois, eleven family members of Rep. Kinzinger sent him a public letter, condemning him for betraying Trump and being part of “the devil’s army.” Not only was Rep. Cheney censured by the Wyoming GOP, fellow House Republicans voted to remove her as their conference chair. Cheney survived that, but 61 GOP representatives — nearly one-third of them — voted against her. The following day, only eleven House Republicans voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene from her committee assignments, following dozens of unearthed statements that threatened violence against members of congress.
Rep. Newhouse and Rep. Herrera-Beutler were censured by the GOP in Washington. Herrera-Beutler was rebuked even after publicly sharing that she based her vote on House Minority Leader McCarthy telling her that he pleaded with Trump on the phone to call off his supporters as they attacked the Capitol, to which Trump responded, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Rep. Herrera-Beutler’s statement was the last piece of evidence admitted in the Senate impeachment trial, in which seven GOP Senators voted to convict. All but one has either been censured by their state’s GOP or will likely face such a reprimand. A county Republican Chair in Pennsylvania recently condemned Sen. Toomey on-air, saying, “We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to do the right thing… We sent him there to represent us.” Apparently to GOP leaders, representing Republicans does not mean doing the right thing.
It is not like Democrats have not had to respond to members of their caucus who have acted inappropriately, but the difference is that they have called out their own bad actors, not punished those in their party who condemn fellow Democrats who cross a line.
In 2008, Gov. Spitzer was shunned by his own party following revelations of a scandal and resigned two days later. In 2011, the first time Rep. Anthony Weiner faced scandal, fellow Democrats called for his resignation and he stepped down within weeks. In 2018, after an expose was published about alleged abuse by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and elected Democrats demanded it, he resigned within hours.
The Arizona GOP censured John McCain’s widow simply for not voting for Trump. There is no equivalence. For one party, doing the right thing no longer matters, but daring to question that is a punishable offense.
