A House panel called on former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to explain why he mandated nursing homes and long-term care facilities house potentially contagious and untested COVID-19 patients at the height of the pandemic.
Mr. Cuomo issued his COVID-19 mandate on New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities in March 2020. Ultimately, 15,000 people died in these facilities during the pandemic.
The subpoena compels Mr. Cuomo to appear on May 24 for a deposition by the Oversight Panel’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, the Ohio Republican who chairs the pandemic subcommittee, said that evidence suggests Mr. Cuomo engaged in a cover-up of the extent of the New York nursing home mortality rate.
“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. It appears that politics, not medicine, was responsible for these decisions,” he said in a statement.
He also accused Mr. Cuomo of avoiding the subcommittee’s requests for a voluntary transcribed interview for the last nine months.
Mr. Cuomo’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, shot back that Mr. Wenstrup and his committee’s subpoena is an “obvious press charade” and that they “issue a subpoena as a press release.”
“This is on them, not us. The governor’s counsel two weeks ago provided dates for an interview and even offered to have any questions answered in writing prior to it,” Mr. Azzopardi said. “The simple fact remains that this issue has been reviewed three times by the Department of Justice under Trump and Biden, as well as Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney who found no there there.”
Mr. Azzopardi added that New York, during Mr. Cuomo’s tenure, followed the guidance put forth by the Trump administration.
“If they have a problem with that, they should look in the mirror. Congress knows this, but it’s not about the facts, this is about politics,” he said before slamming lawmakers for not passing a funding bill that sends military resources to Ukraine’s war against Russia.
“Instead, they continue to play politics with COVID and weaponize people’s pain and loss of loved ones. Congress is officially a circus and they are nothing but clowns,” Mr. Azzopardi said.
Mr. Cuomo resigned from the governorship in August 2021 after several women accused him of sexually harassing them. Mr. Cuomo denied the allegations.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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