Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo repeated his notorious “who cares?” line throughout a grilling by a Home committee Tuesday about his administration’s determination to ship contaminated COVID-19 sufferers into nursing houses — leading to 1000’s of deaths throughout the pandemic, according to a readout of his testimony launched Wednesday by Republicans.
Republican majority workers from the Home Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic mentioned Cuomo “deflected responsibility” all through the seven-hour interview about his administration’s devastating March 25, 2020, “should admit” order that shuttled sick sufferers into senior care amenities statewide.
A transcript of the testimony has but to be launched, and reps for Cuomo who had been current for the interview have disputed a number of the readout’s claims.
In the course of the closed-door session, the 66-year-old Cuomo blamed an unidentified workers member on the New York Well being Division for drafting the directive, claimed it mirrored federal steering, was not obligatory — and dismissed the premise of the Home probe as part of an ongoing political attack.
However Republicans on the panel pushed again and compelled Cuomo to acknowledge the language of the state order differed from DC’s steering, Home GOP convention chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and different members advised reporters.
“They [Cuomo and his then-staff] wish to assert that that order is strictly the identical because the federal [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines], which it isn’t,” upstate Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) mentioned on Tuesday throughout a break within the proceedings.
“The state order says, ‘You shall take again people and you can’t deny them solely on the idea of COVID,’ which left [nursing homes] no choice however to simply accept people that we knew would trigger danger to the opposite sufferers,” he defined.
Molinaro additionally accused Cuomo’s administration of getting “cooked the books” on the nursing home death count, which was later confirmed by two state investigations, as soon as they “knew that the order was inflicting nice loss”
“When pressed to clarify the discrepancy between the reported dying rely and the true mortality price, Mr. Cuomo was shockingly callous — testifying ‘6,500 versus 9,000…who cares, what distinction did it make?’” the readout of the interview on Capitol Hill exhibits.
“He appeared to really feel little or no regret,” choose subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) advised The Put up and different reporters after his interview with the ex-governor. “Typically [he] could be speaking a few sure variety of deaths in a sure place, and to him they had been simply numbers. They had been simply numbers.”
“It’s mind-blowing to me that the governor, who was later to rescind or amend the directive that went out about placing COVID sufferers or untested sufferers again into nursing houses,” Wenstrup added. “He was the one who put the manager order out to amend it, however when it got here to the directive itself, he had no thought the place it got here from and nonetheless doesn’t. No duty.”
“I don’t know the place the buck stops,” added Wenstrup, considered one of a number of medical doctors on the panel and a retired US Military colonel who acquired a Bronze Star for his work as a fight surgeon throughout the Iraq Conflict.
A spokeswoman for the Home subcommittee majority additionally advised The Put up that Cuomo used the phrases “who cares” and “what’s the distinction” quite a few occasions.
“Any dismissal of the heartbreak that households who misplaced family members to COVID-19 proceed to expertise is unacceptable and inconsistent with the values of compassion and empathy that People deserve from their public officers,” subcommittee rating member Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) advised The Put up in an announcement.
“The purpose was, there was no discrepancy, as all classes had been contained within the total dying quantity that was by no means in dispute,” Cuomo spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi mentioned in an announcement.
“What the Republicans couldn’t clarify was why 1.2 million People died throughout this pandemic — greater than another nation and another conflict — beneath the dearth of management from Trump and the Republicans that continues to at the present time as they put a podiatrist in control of the COVID committee,” he added in a direct assault in opposition to Wenstrup.
In a Could 2023 listening to earlier than the choose subcommittee, Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a physician and former chief medical officer for Sacramento County, referred to as the New York directive “medical malpractice.”
Cuomo’s response was equivalent to the previous governor’s response to a January 2021 report from New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James, who revealed his administration had low-balled the variety of nursing residence deaths by more than 50% by excluding residents who later died in hospitals.
Well being Commissioner Howard Zucker responded by releasing the full data, which shifted the COVID dying rely from 8,711 to 12,743 as of that month.
“Who cares [if they] died within the hospital, died in a nursing residence?” Cuomo erupted in a Jan. 29 press convention the day after the report was launched. “They died.”
Auditors confirmed the next yr that Albany’s Division of Well being had “misled the general public” by leaving out at the very least 4,100 nursing residence deaths as a result of COVID-19 — and had “conformed its presentation to the Government’s narrative,” which means Cuomo.
“If I knew then what I do know now, I might have advised my Division of Well being, ‘Don’t hearken to the federal authorities; they don’t know what they’re speaking about,’” the previous governor advised The Put up and others on the finish of his transcribed interview, declining to simply accept full duty whereas expressing some regret for the end result.
He additionally admitted that nursing houses had been “confused” by the directive, in keeping with the readout.
Voices for Seniors, a nonprofit for households who misplaced family members to COVID-19 in nursing houses, additionally blasted Cuomo in an announcement.
“WE CARE!” the group mentioned. “Each time we stare on the empty chairs at our tables, we care. We care each time we wish to hug our misplaced liked one they usually aren’t by our aspect. We care each single day when our family members can’t share in our joys or consolation us in our lows. We care as a result of Cuomo failed to guard our senior residents that trusted him.”
“There is no such thing as a confusion that ordering a lethal virus into nursing houses precipitated the demise of 1000’s,” they added. “We sit up for Andrew Cuomo being delivered to justice for the 15,000 harmless victims and us grieving households.”
Wenstrup indicated it was “very probably” the previous New York governor — who may challenge Eric Adams for New York Metropolis mayor in 2025 — might be again in Congress once more this yr for a public listening to.
“It’s not solely simply the individuals in New York that deserve this, as a result of they do,” he mentioned, “however I believe the entire nation does.”
