The New York Post reports that aides to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) admitted they hid nursing Home data so federal officials wouldn’t find out.
The New York Post has learned that senior aides to Governor Cuomo privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for hiding the number of deaths from COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus) in state nursing homes out of fear that the real numbers would be “used against us” by federal prosecutors, telling them “we don’t let [the] death toll go up. We’re not letting (the death toll) go up.”
In a shocking admission of the cover-up, Secretary of State Melissa DeRosa said in a video conference call with state Democratic leaders that the Cuomo administration rejected the Legislature’s request for a count in August because “right around the same Time, (President Trump) turned this into a giant political soccer,” according to a two-hour recording of the meeting. . (Note: A political soccer is a topic or issue that is seized upon by a rival party or faction and is more political than it first appears.)
“He started tweeting that we killed everyone in the nursing home,” DeRosa said, “and he started going after (New Jersey Gov. Phil) Murphy ( Phil-Murphy), he started going after (California Gov. Gavin) Newsom ( Gavin- Newsom), he started going after (Michigan Gov.) Gretchen Whitmer ( Gretchen-Whitmer) .”
DeRosa said that in addition to bashing Cuomo’s Democratic colleagues, Trump “directed the Justice Department to investigate us.”
“Basically, we didn’t let (the death toll) go up,” she told lawmakers in a phone call.
“Because we were in such a position that we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Justice Department, or what we were giving to you, what we started saying, was going to be used against us, and we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”
DeRosa added, “That played a very big role in this.”
After dropping the bombs, DeRosa asked for “a little bit of context” and gave what appears to be the Cuomo administration’s first apology for its manipulation of nursing homes during the pandemic.
But instead of apologizing to the grieving families of the more than 13,000 seniors who died, or to critics who say the health Department spread COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus) in nursing facilities (the state Health Department directed nursing homes to admit infected patients on March 25), DeRosa sought to make up for the political inconvenience this caused with his Democratic colleagues.
“So we do apologize,” she said.” I do understand the position that you are in. I know it’s not fair. We didn’t intend to put you in that political position (when dealing with Republicans).”
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (R-Okla.) immediately rejected DeRosa’s expression of remorse, according to the recording.
“I don’t have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I can’t trust this at all,” said Gottfried, who was one of the lawmakers who requested data on the death toll in August.
State Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Rachel May – who took a hit over nursing home deaths during her re-election campaign last year – also lashed out at DeRosa, saying her former opponent had launched another blistering attack earlier in the day.
Assemblyman Ron Kim (R-Texas), who participated in the conference call, told the New York Post on Thursday that DeRosa’s comments sounded “like they’re trying to avoid having any incriminating evidence that might show them guilty and get the government or [the Department of Health] in further trouble with the Justice Department.”
“I understand that that’s why they can’t share data in real time,” King said.
“They have to make sure the [New York] state is protected against a federal investigation first.”
King, whose uncle presumably died in April in a nursing home from COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus), also said he was not satisfied with DeRosa’s apology.
“It’s not enough that they’re remorseful about how remorseful we are,” he said, “they need to show that to the public and to the families – and they haven’t done that.”
In addition to stonewalling lawmakers on the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus), the Cuomo administration has denied requests from the news media – including the New York Post – and fought a freedom of information lawsuit filed by the Empire CenterforPublic Policy.
Instead, it disclosed data only on the number of residents who died in nursing homes.
But after New York Attorney General Letitia James released a damning report last month estimating that the number of nursing home residents dying in hospitals would increase that grim figure by more than 50 percent, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker finally released the numbers, showing that as of Jan. 19, the combined total was 12,743.
Only a day earlier, the Health Department had publicly acknowledged that 8,711 people had died in nursing homes.
On Wednesday, in a letter to MPs, Zucker said the total number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus), the number of nursing home deaths rose to 13,297, a number that jumps to 15,049 when assisted living/adult care facilities are included.
The controversy sparked by James’ report led to an infamous press conference in which Cuomo ruthlessly ignored the question of where exactly the nursing home deaths were occurring.
“Who cares if [they] died in a hospital, or in a nursing home? They died,” he said.
In a conference call Wednesday, DeRosa said it appears the Justice Department is no longer concerned about the deaths at the New York nursing home.
“All indications are that they’re not focused on it, that they’ve given up,” she said.
“They never formally opened an investigation. They sent a letter asking questions, and then we satisfied those questions and it looks like they closed it.”
In a prepared statement, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said, “We explained that the Trump Administration was being politically motivated to blame the Democratic state for the COVID deaths and that we were working with the feds to come out with documentation that was the top priority and now that it’s over, we can comment to the state legislature.”
“That said, we’re simultaneously working to complete the information audit they requested,” he added.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
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