Andrew Cuomo ripped for repeating infamous response to nursing home Covid deaths in testimony to Congress

WASHINGTON, DC: A readout of Andrew Cuomo's testimony released on Wednesday, June 12, by Republicans, shows that the former New York governor repeated his infamous "Who cares?" line during a House Committee interview on Tuesday regarding his administration's decision to send individuals infected with Covid-19 into nursing homes, as per the New York Post.

He reportedly "deflected responsibility" throughout the seven-hour interview regarding his administration's disastrous March 25, 2020 "must admit" order that shuttled sick patients into senior care facilities statewide, according to Republican majority staff from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Andrew Cuomo asserts his nursing home policy followed federal guidelines during a House Committee interview

Although a transcript of the testimony is still pending, Cuomo representatives in attendance at the interview have refuted some statements present in the readout.

In the closed-door meeting, the Democrat apparently blamed an unnamed New York Health Department employee for writing the order, asserted that it followed federal guidelines, and rejected the House investigation's premise as part of a broader political campaign.

However, Republicans resisted and made Cuomo concede that the state order's wording deviated from Washington's direction, House GOP conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and other panelists told reporters.

Upstate Rep Marc Molinaro (R-NY) said on Tuesday during a break in the proceedings, "They [Cuomo and his then-staff] want to assert that that order is exactly the same as the federal [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines], which it is not."

He explained, "The state order says, 'You shall take back individuals and you cannot deny them solely on the basis of COVID', which left [nursing homes] no option but to accept individuals that we knew would cause risk to the other patients."

Additionally, Molinaro mentioned that Cuomo's administration "cooked the books" on the number of nursing facility deaths, claiming that they "knew that the order was causing great loss," which was subsequently verified by two state investigations.

The readout of the interview on Capitol Hill says, "When pressed to explain the discrepancy between the reported death count and the true mortality rate, Mr Cuomo was shockingly callous — testifying ‘6,500 versus 9,000…who cares, what difference did it make?'"

Following his discussion with the former New York governor, Brad Wenstrup, the chairman of the select subcommittee, informed reporters, "He seemed to feel very little remorse. Often [he] would be talking about a certain number of deaths in a certain place, and to him they were just numbers. They were just numbers."

Wenstrup added, "It is mind-blowing to me that the governor, who was later to rescind or amend the directive that went out about putting COVID patients or untested patients back into nursing homes. He was the one who put the executive order out to amend it, but when it came to the directive itself, he had no idea where it came from and still does not. No responsibility."

Internet rips Andrew Cuomo over his Congressional testimony on pandemic blunders

One wrote, "Dodging responsibility," while another added, "I always remember when he told someone to get another job because they have closed his business because it was non essential."

A person stated, "What he did to the elderly & their families was criminal!" whereas someone else mentioned, "Disgrace to Italians everywhere."

"Andrew Cuomo is a terrible person. He's even cruel to wildlife," declared an individual. 

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.