Cuomo to testify before Congress on nursing home deaths during pandemic

Former Recent York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has agreed to testify publicly next week before a congressional subcommittee to answer questions about the thousands of deaths that have occurred in nursing homes across the state during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo is scheduled to testify at a hearing on September 10, according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

“Andrew Cuomo owes answers to the 15,000 families who have lost loved ones in Recent York nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, and chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement. “On September 10, Americans will finally have the opportunity to hear directly from the governor about these potentially deadly nursing home rules.”

It will be the second time in recent months that Mr. Cuomo has faced questioning from House Republicans. He testified for seven hours behind closed doors in June after receiving a subpoena.

A transcript of that testimony has not yet been released, but lawmakers said they pressed Mr. Cuomo on a March 25, 2020, directive from the state Department of Health that required nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals. The disease spread rapidly in nursing homes, causing more than 15,000 deaths by June 2021.

During closed-door testimony, Mr Wenstrup said Mr Cuomo was “shockingly callous” and showed “no remorse for the thousands of lives lost”.

Mr. Cuomo told reporters after the hearing that he believed blame for the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic should be placed on the Trump administration, not his leadership in Recent York.

“I think the federal government has failed this nation and it’s been pathetic,” Mr. Cuomo said. “How did Covid get to the United States in December and nobody knew about it? How did it take months for testing — basic testing — to be implemented? How did the president of the United States run around saying it would disappear when the weather got warmer?”

He argued that the state Department of Health was following federal guidelines.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have told my Department of Health, ‘Don’t listen to the federal government. They don’t know what they’re talking about,'” Mr. Cuomo told reporters.

A recent state-commissioned report criticized Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic but stopped brief of blaming him for nursing home deaths. Report found that Recent York’s nursing home death toll was broadly consistent with national figures.

The subcommittee also obtained transcripts of interviews with at least several high-ranking Cuomo administration officials.