Cuomo's Dannemora Press Conference Disrupted Efforts To Capture Escaped Criminals

Fred Dicker in the Post:

Cuomo’s surprise arrival at a still-unfolding escape scene a week ago Saturday generated considerable national publicity for the governor, but distracted investigators at a time when the full facts of the escape were not yet known, the sources said.

“Cuomo actually disrupted the early search efforts when he arrived at the ‘command center’ on Saturday and refused to enter the room until everyone was removed except state employees,’’ said a longtime law-enforcement figure who has regular contact with many involved in the search effort.

“Cuomo’s aides came in and threw out the US marshal, the sheriff [David Favro, like Cuomo a Democrat] and others who were there to help coordinate the search effort.

“And they did it without even saying ‘Thanks for your help,’ or such, just, ‘Get out so his highness can enter.’

Ken Lovett at the Daily News reports some are saying Cuomo's budget cuts are partly to blame for the prison escape:

Cuomo has been front-and-center publicly since the two dangerous inmates dug their way to freedom.

But critics have already begun questioning whether prison staffing and overtime issues played a role in the first escape from a New York maximum security prison since 2003.

The Plattsburgh Press Republican reported that two guard towers at Clinton Correctional were left unmanned because the Cuomo administration was pressing for cuts in overtime.

That paper and the Albany Times Union also reported that a request to lock down and search every cell at the prison after a melee days before the escape was turned down because of overtime concerns.

“There’s enough dots connected to raise eyebrows and people are beginning to question if this is a problem of the governor’s creation,” said one insider. “The prison break could end up being an even bigger headache for him once the prisoners are safely captured. It ties into what he’s doing with the agencies and their budgets.”

Cuomo did the full morning Monty after the escape, going on as many "news" shows as he could to play "Tough Guy" and show Americans how "in charge he is.

But the longer this story goes, the more damaging it becomes to Cuomo.

It exposes him as an incompetent gloryhound whose policies helped bring about this mess.

Cuomo better hope they catch these dudes soon - the longer they're free, the more scrutiny he and his administration are going to get.