Faced with a flood of accusations, Governor Cuomo refused to apologize at a press conference Friday. (Screenshot from state government video)
New York Governor Cuomo spent much of his press conference in Albany on Friday (Feb. 19) stating his position on nursing Home policy, which was “no apology”; he not only called all the criticism of him on nursing home issues “lies He not only called all outside condemnation of him on the nursing home issue “lies,” but said he made a mistake in not forcefully pushing back against the lies himself.
State House Republicans echoed Cuomo’s attitude; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), a New York federal Democrat, also came forward and called for a full investigation of Cuomo.
Amid calls from many Democrats to investigate the truth about the nursing home, Cuomo said the demand for accountability for the nursing home was “misinformation” and that “the Republican Party is playing politics.
“No one has the right to spread rumors and misinformation and cause suffering, it’s politics, it’s chaos.” Cuomo said, “I can’t let you hurt New Yorkers by lying about what’s going on around the death of people’s loved ones.”
Cuomo said he acknowledged that he has not been more forceful in confronting these “lies”; he said he is now confronting them and is going after “facts and figures.
Seeing Cuomo’s emphasis on “facts and figures” as well, the state House minority leader issued a statement saying it was “hypocritical” of Cuomo because he ignored both “facts and figures. In a statement obtained by the newspaper, Cuomo said he was “disingenuous” because he ignored both “facts and data.
In a statement obtained by the newspaper, state House Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Texas) said the governor has been emphasizing “facts and figures” for months, but his practice of “saying one thing and doing another” “It’s always been a hallmark of the Cuomo administration.
After the New York Post exposed a Feb. 10 admission by Cuomo Secretary Melissa DeRosa that the state did conceal COVID-19 deaths at the nursing home, the New York Law Journal revealed that the FBI and U.S. federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into Cuomo’s policies on the nursing home.
While the federal investigation is underway, local lawmakers also have a responsibility to act, Buckley said. The day before they had formed a bipartisan committee aimed at evaluating whether Cuomo should be impeached.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about the state’s response to the outbreak and its impact on nursing homes.” Buckley said, “Because of this administration’s consistent refusal to be transparent, so much so that we’ve been scratching our heads over the past few months about anything – what is ‘fact’? What is ‘fiction’? What are we really supposed to believe?”
Cuomo is facing more than just accountability from the aforementioned parties, but also more pressure from fellow Democrats. On Friday, Congresswoman O’Casey Show issued a statement saying she supports a full federal investigation of Cuomo.
“I support the federal restoration of equal regulatory authority (over this matter) and stand with local officials to conduct a full investigation into the Cuomo administration’s handling of the nursing home during COVID-19.” In a statement, O’Cashew wrote, “Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes during the Epidemic, and their families and the public deserve answers about what happened, and transparency from elected officials in power.”
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