Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday to answer questions about his management throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – together with an notorious order that put contaminated sufferers in senior care amenities alongside weak aged individuals.
Cuomo entered the O’Neill Home Workplace Constructing somewhat earlier than 10 a.m., accompanied by his attorneys and addressed reporters outdoors earlier than sitting down with members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
“You realize, 4 years in the past, the Republican administration accused New York and different Democratic states of mismanaging the COVID scenario, particularly mismanaging in nursing houses – they usually referred to as for a Division of Justice investigation towards simply 4 Democratic states,” Cuomo mentioned.
“It’s ironic as we speak that you just hear complaints in regards to the weaponization of the justice system, after they nuclearized the justice system towards Democratic states,” he added, pointing to federal investigations that “discovered no wrongdoing” and claiming his notorious March 25, 2020, nursing home order had “followed the federal guidance.”
“It defies logic for anybody that you’d mandate nursing houses, who weren’t able to taking these COVID-positive sufferers as a result of they didn’t have the house to separate them, or they didn’t have the PPE to look after them, or the staffing to look after them at that second,” Home COVID subcommittee member Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) mentioned earlier than the listening to.
“What I’m in search of, actually, is the solutions to what led to it: Was there some sort of financial incentive for hospitals versus nursing houses versus the COVID amenities that have been later arrange?” she requested. “And we need to know who was accountable for making that call. And what was the knowledge that they’d that led them to that call?”
“Even once you had US Navy [USNS] Consolation [hospital] ship and also you had South Seashore Psychiatric Middle on Staten Island, a makeshift hospital that was arrange for COVID sufferers, even once you had the Javits Middle arrange, they nonetheless continued this lethal mandate,” Malliotakis burdened.
“I feel that we’ll have much more readability as to what led to that lethal mandate that hundreds of seniors died,” she concluded. “The distinction is that CDC steerage had made a suggestion that actually was not a mandate.”
The Justice Division didn’t suggest Cuomo for prosecution based mostly on the March 25, 2020, “should admit” order after trying into the choice – however stories from the New York Bar Affiliation and Empire Middle for Public Coverage determined that it led to lots of of further deaths.
New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James additionally revealed in January 2021 on the finish of an investigation that the Cuomo administration undercounted by more than 50% the number of nursing home deaths.
The Division of Well being had initially recorded 8,711 deaths, which was later pushed as much as greater than 13,000, in accordance with James’ report.
The 76-page report surveyed 62 nursing houses that discovered the state undercounted the fatalities there by a mean of 56%.
The next month, his prime aide apologized to Democratic lawmakers on a personal telephone name for withholding the information, saying the administration “froze” within the face of federal prosecutors who might use it “towards us.”
The aide, Melissa DeRosa, accused the Trump administration of utilizing the information as “a giant political football” earlier than happening to assault different Democratic governors like Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
Then-President Donald Trump ordered “the Division of Justice to do an investigation into us,” DeRosa instructed the lawmakers. “And principally, we froze.”
“As a result of then we have been ready the place we weren’t certain if what we have been going to provide to the Division of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we begin saying, was going for use towards us whereas we weren’t certain if there was going to be an investigation,” she added. “That performed a really giant position into this.”
DeRosa will seem within the coming weeks for a separate transcribed interview with the Home COVID subcommittee, a spokeswoman for the panel instructed The Publish.
One other committee spokesperson beforehand revealed that the previous Commissioner of the New York State Division of Well being, Howard Zucker, testified to the panel that DeRosa exercised a “crucial” position in making ready and finishing up the state’s must-admit order.
Her lawyer, Gregory Morvillo, has beforehand denied her involvement.
“Melissa performed no position within the drafting or implementation of the March 25 steerage,” Morvillo mentioned in a December assertion following Zucker’s testimony.
“What we perceive Dr. Zucker did say is that Melissa, as secretary to the governor, performed a crucial position in COVID response, which is true.”
Greater than 80,000 New Yorkers died of COVID-19 from the start of the pandemic to Might 2023, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data show.
Home COVID subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) pledged in a press release that “former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shall be held to account in entrance of Congress for the lethal pandemic-era nursing house insurance policies issued beneath his watch.”
“This transcribed interview earlier than the Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will delve deeper into the March twenty fifth order than any investigation has earlier than and hopefully present the solutions that so many devastated New Yorkers have been desperately in search of since 2020,” Wenstrup mentioned.
“The victims’ households deserve accountability — not just for the disastrous ‘must-admit’ insurance policies, however for the cowl up that ensued,” he added.
Wenstrup additionally mentioned the transcribed interview would delve into a $5 million book deal that Cuomo inked throughout the pandemic.
The COVID panel had threatened to subpoena Cuomo final yr for testimony – and later made good on the threat earlier than negotiating a time and place for him to reply lawmakers’ questions.
“It was inappropriate to be anxious a couple of e book deal,” Malliotakis instructed The Publish. “And the opposite factor was the numbers – the numbers that the lawyer common discovered have been low-balled to make him proceed to seem like he was doing an awesome job in New York when the loss of life depend confirmed in any other case.”
Cuomo resigned in August 2021 after a probe by New York State Lawyer Basic Letitia James concluded he had sexually harassed or mistreated 11 ladies throughout his time in workplace.
Since leaving workplace, the previous governor has reportedly been eyeing a political comeback, with insiders telling The Publish recently that he may challenge Eric Adams for New York Metropolis mayor in 2025.
