A Republican-led congressional panel has requested former Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to testify over his handling of nursing homes during the COVID pandemic.
Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 following a sexual misconduct scandal, has been asked to appear for a May 24 deposition focused on a mandate Cuomo issued forcing New York nursing homes to admit or re-admit untested COVID-19 patients.
“This order recklessly exposed New York’s most vulnerable population to COVID-19 with deadly consequences. Evidence also suggests that former Governor Cuomo engaged in a coverup to hide the true New York nursing home mortality rate from the public and shift political blame away from his administration,” the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic said in a statement.
According to Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Cuomo “implemented nursing home policies that had deadly consequences for New York’s most vulnerable population. Not only did the former Governor put the elderly in harm’s way, but he also attempted to cover-up his failures by hiding the true nursing home death rate.”
Wenstrup said that Cuamo’s decisions were made based on “politics, not medicine.”
The chairman added that Cuomo “owes answers to the 15,000 families who lost loved ones in New York nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. His testimony is crucial to uncover the circumstances that led to his misguided policies and for ensuring that fatal mistakes never happen again. It is well past time for Cuomo to stop dodging accountability to Congress and start answering honestly to the American people.”
