(The Center Square) — House Republicans grilled former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic amid fresh claims that the Democrat has tried to deflect responsibility for a policy they claim contributed to a high rate of deaths in nursing homes.
Members of the Republican-controlled Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic peppered Cuomo with questions for hours about a controversial directive issued by his administration in the early days of the pandemic that required nursing homes and long-term care facilities in New York to admit COVID-19-positive patients.
Lawmakers accused Cuomo of ignoring the science on infectious controls in nursing home settings and federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare guidance that conflicted with his directive.
"Your directive was not consistent with federal guidance nor consistent with medical doctrine," Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, committee's chairman, said in opening remarks. "You do not put highly contagious patients vulnerable with vulnerable patients, subject to infection, or in this case, death."
Ahead of Tuesday's hearing, the panel released a memo claiming it has new evidence from testimony that Cuomo and his team "made a deliberate decision to exclude scientifically significant nursing home-related COVID-19 deaths from mortality rates" and "heavily edited" New York State Department of Health documents "to shift blame away from Mr. Cuomo and his team."
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said the report's findings show that Cuomo tried to cover up his involvement in a "fatal order" that led to the death of "vulnerable seniors" in nursing homes and got into a heated exchange with the former governor after calling on him to apologize to the families who lost loved ones in nursing homes during the pandemic.
"This is about the seniors. There are families sitting here today," she said. "I want you to turn around, look them in the eye and apologize, which you have failed to do. Will you do it?"
Other GOP lawmakers criticized Cuomo for showing a lack of empathy about his responsibility for policies that they claimed contributed to a high rate of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities.
"You've shown no remorse, no responsibility for the actions of your administration," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said in remarks. "That's simply not leadership."
Cuomo, a Democrat who stepped down from office in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, defended himself before the House panel and blasted GOP members for conducting a "partisan" investigation.
He pointed the blame for the high number of COVID-19 deaths nationwide on then-President Donald Trump, whom he claimed "willfully deceived the American people" during the pandemic.
"His lies and denials delayed our response, let the virus spread, and this country never caught up," Cuomo said in his fiery opening remarks. "And this subcommittee, run by Republicans, repeats the Trump lies and deceptions."
Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., came to Cuomo's defense during Tuesday's overnight grilling and also sought to focus the blame on Trump's response to the pandemic.
The March 25 directive required nursing homes to begin accepting "medically stable" patients recovering from COVID-19 in 2020 as they were discharged from hospitals. It was rescinded after several weeks, but Cuomo was widely criticized for contributing to the high death toll in the state's long-term care facilities.
More than 80,000 New Yorkers died of COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic to May 2023, including 15,000 nursing home residents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cuomo pointed out that the U.S. Department of Justice investigated whether Cuomo's policy violated residents' civil rights in New York's nursing homes and found no wrongdoing. He also noted a probe by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which was later abandoned. He said both investigations determined that New York's directive was in line with federal health policies that were in place at the time.
"In addition, this report provides no evidence to support President Trump's main allegations, repeated over three years, that New York's guidance killed thousands in nursing homes," he said. "All credible studies now say that Covid came into nursing homes through community spread, not infected hospital admissions or re-admissions. The numbers don't lie."
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