Cuomo debates Republican-led subcommittee over COVID-19 response

WASHINGTON — Former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo clashed with members of a Republican-led subcommittee Tuesday over his handling of policy for nursing homes and coronavirus patients in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Cuomo, sitting alone at a long witness table before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, repeatedly rejected subcommittee findings that faulted his mandate to nursing homes to take in coronavirus patients and his report minimizing the number of deaths.

But Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the subcommittee chairman, told Cuomo in a hearing room that included people who lost relatives in the pandemic, "Governor, you own this. It’s your name on the letterhead. This is your directive. You were the leader. The buck stops with you."

The hearing focused on effects of the Cuomo administration’s March 25, 2020, directive to nursing homes that required them to admit patients with COVID-19 and barred testing for coronavirus, and its July 6, 2020, report on the number of coronavirus nursing home deaths that excluded patients who died outside those facilities.

Nursing homes admitted more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients released from hospitals under the directive, more than the 6,000 reported on July 6.

Overall, about 15,000 long-term care residents with COVID-19 in New York have died, according to The Associated Press.

Wenstrup said New York changed the guidance issued by the federal government from allowing nursing homes to decline to accept patients with coronavirus to requiring those facilities to accept the ill patients and barring tests of them.

Cuomo cited an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James into the guidance. James, he said, "confirmed the March 25 advisory was in total compliance with federal guidelines."

Democrats offered little help for Cuomo.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) asked about the investigation’s finding that the July 6 report included far fewer deaths than had occurred.

"Let’s go count those that were in hospitals. Those numbers, in my opinion, were very sketchy, and depending on the day they moved around a lot. I was not going to report the inaccurate information," Cuomo said. "So, we specifically said, ‘Here’s the nursing home number,’ without the out-of-facility number."

As the two-hour hearing wore on, some Republicans took a harder line with Cuomo.

"This investigation found that you, Governor, and your most senior aides made a deliberate decision to exclude certain COVID-19-related nursing home deaths to hide and unwind the actual mortality rate in nursing homes," said Rep. Elisa Stefanik (R-Schuylerville).

Stefanik asked Cuomo when he negotiated a multimillion-dollar book advance. "As seniors were dying in nursing homes? That is the question in front of you," she said.

"You made up facts, Congresswoman," Cuomo said.

"You’re the one making up facts," Stefanik said. "There are families sitting here. I want you to turn around, look them in the eye and apologize for what you failed to do."

"This is not about political theater," Cuomo said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said former President Donald Trump sent a ship with medical facilities to New York but it sat empty.

"Mind you that the comfort ship was sent to New York on March 30 of 2020," she said. "That was just a few days after you signed the directive to put COVID-19 patients into nursing homes on March 25, which led to murdering people's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents," she said.

Cuomo deflected the attack and said federal and state governments should work together.

Cuomo did get some help from some of the Democrats on the committee. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, urged his Republican colleagues to conduct an objective examination of Trump's handling of the pandemic.