Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will sit for a hearing Sept. 10 before the congressional subcommittee tasked with probing the coronavirus pandemic, the panel announced Tuesday.
Cuomo, one of the most visible governors during the height of the pandemic, was lambasted for implementing stringent social and economic restrictions throughout the Empire State.
He also was blamed for thousands of COVID-related deaths that occurred in nursing homes, which a 2023 report from the NYS Department of Health calculated to be 826 in Suffolk County, 813 in Erie County – which includes Buffalo — and 623 in Queens County.
“Mr. Cuomo will be questioned about his Administration’s issuance of unscientific guidance that forced New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities to admit COVID-19 positive patients,” an announcement for the hearing read.
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Cuomo, a Democrat, previously sat for a seven-hour transcribed interview with the subcommittee. The panel also interviewed Cuomo’s former secretary, Melissa DeRosa, and then-NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a Staten Island lawmaker who sits on the subcommittee, said in an interview Tuesday that Cuomo still refuses to take responsibility for his orders and their repercussions.
She recounted how no one in Albany could point to exactly where the order partitioning nursing home patients came from.
“We still don’t know who approved that directive because the governor saying he didn’t know about it, he’s claiming that [Zucker] knew about it before it went out. And yet somehow they’ve been unable to identify who the person was that approved it and issued it, which is so negligent for a directive like that to go out without the health commissioner approving it at minimum,” she said.
The New York lawmaker also pointed to then-President Donald Trump dispatching a military medical ship to New York Harbor, the Jacob Javits Center, and the availability of a mental hospital in her district for the purposes of treating and partitioning serious COVID-19 patients.
“They weren’t being used. So why you have that directive in place, forcing the nursing home to take the COVID positive patients, even when you had alternatives? That was a big failure because at that point he was very clear about this directive.”
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When asked how people in her district feel about the situation, Malliotakis said many had lost loved ones during the pandemic from “preventable deaths.”
“They were a result of putting COVID-positive patients in nursing homes. And that was based on a directive and mandate by the Cuomo administration. And the buck stops with him, and he needs to be held accountable,” she said.
“[He blamed] everybody but himself. No apology, no accountability. No remorse… the public deserves answers, and we’re going to push for them at this hearing.”
However, a Cuomo spokesman told Fox News Digital, “the facts speak for themselves” when it comes to the former governor’s handling of COVID, calling congressional Republicans’ oversight a “master class in gaslighting.”
“New York had a lower nursing home death pro-rata than all but 11 states,” said Rich Azzopardi.
Azzopardi called the committee a “farce” and criticized it for being comprised of a “foot doctor” – referring to Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, — “Trump’s personal physician” – former White House doctor; current Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and “a representative with a Ph.D. in QAnon,” in regard to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.,
“[The committee] refuse[s] to look in the mirror at their own anti-science policies that caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths or call the one witness who is most relevant and was supposed to lead the entire effort: Donald Trump,” Azzopardi said.
While in office, Cuomo was at times questioned by the press on the matter. In one notable exchange during a July 2020 press conference, the governor was asked about a state report on nursing homes and why an independent investigator was not appointed.
“I don’t believe your characterization is correct – I believe it is a political issue,” Cuomo shot back at the reporter.
Cuomo then went on to blame the New York Post and Fox News, as well as political motivations, for the issue’s prominence.
“People died in nursing homes. That’s very unfortunate. Just on the topline, we are number 35th in the nation in percentage of deaths in nursing homes. Go talk to 34 other states first.”
Cuomo was also criticized for interviews during the pandemic with his brother, Chris, on CNN. In one exchange, the siblings shared a laugh after Chris brandished two comically-large nasal swabs to suggest Andrew has exceptionally large nostrils.
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