former governor of new york Andrew Cuomo He faced tough questioning from House GOP lawmakers on Tuesday over his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes during the peak of the pandemic.
Cuomo visited Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House select subcommittee investigating the matter. Coronavirus pandemic.
Lawmakers focused on an executive order issued by the then-governor on March 25, 2020, which prohibited nursing homes from refusing to admit or readmit residents “solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.”
A report released in March 2022 new York State The comptroller found that Cuomo’s Health Department “was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes” and that it “underreported the number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50%” during some points of the pandemic.
Cuomo was finally forced to tell the whole truth about COVID-19, which killed thousands
Representative Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the COVID-19 select subcommittee, questioned former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo behind closed doors on Tuesday. (Getty Images)
Cuomo rejected these claims, insisting that New York’s health department was following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued by the Trump administration prior to Cuomo’s order.
A report released in March 2022 by the New York State Comptroller found that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s health department “was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.” (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
In his opening remarks, Cuomo said, “Any serious review must stop asking political questions and start asking fact-based questions.” He pointed out that New York “ranks 39th in the nation for nursing home deaths (even though the state is ground zero for COVID).”
He also accused the Trump administration of targeting Democratic states while “both red and blue states are issuing the same guidelines.”
Republican lawmakers held a press conference after the hearing in which they accused Cuomo of deflecting blame.
“I thought the governor was on the defensive all day, often shifting the blame onto other people rather than himself. (He) didn’t seem to take a lot of responsibility for what was going on,” said Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., called Cuomo a “fake” and a “deceiver” who “endangered our most vulnerable populations, resulting in the deaths of over 15,000 seniors.”
“And it was Andrew Cuomo who hid it. It wasn’t just the directive itself that was bad and stupid and resulted in the deaths of over 15,000 senior citizens. It was Andrew Cuomo who directed the state government to hide the death toll for political purposes,” he said.
FILE: Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been accused of mishandling his state’s response to Covid-19. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said today’s statement “is a step toward ensuring accountability and providing long-overdue answers to families who are still grieving the deaths of their loved ones.”
Speaking to reporters after the statement, Cuomo said the federal government is ultimately responsible for the severity of the pandemic.
“We have two different opinions on what happened during COVID. I think the federal government failed this country. And it was terrible. How did COVID arrive in the U.S. in December and nobody knew? How did it take so many months to start basic testing? How did we have a president who was running around saying, ‘This will be over when the weather gets warmer?’ Who then admits to a reporter that he intentionally downplayed it?”
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told Fox News Digital that the governor “presented fact-based evidence that New York, at the end of the day, was proportionately the 39th state in nursing home deaths in 2020 — despite the fact that it started out among the hardest hit.”
“We worked day and night to protect New Yorkers and save lives, even as ‘experts’ kept changing the facts on the ground. We were dealing with international PPE shortages and there was no national response,” Azzopardi said. “The fact that this partisan spectacle was allowed to continue, and that they continue to tell their factless stories — especially to help their marginalized members who weren’t even at the hearings, shows how much of a joke this was.”
Wenstrup Cuomo subpoenaed Cuomo was asked to appear before his committee in March. The letter sent with the subpoena said Cuomo’s testimony “is critical to our investigation into the effectiveness of federal guidance and regulations implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to protecting nursing home residents.”
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“In addition, this inquiry may inform legislation to enhance the federal scientific guidance process, including the drafting, publication, and implementation of guidelines received from CMS or CDC,” the letter states.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
