Cuomo expresses sympathy for victims in controversial hearing and criticizes Trump's response to Covid-19

CNN
—

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday expressed sympathy for Covid-19 victims while defending his administration and blaming former President Donald Trump for its response to the pandemic as he publicly testified before a Republican-led House committee and faced questions about the state's nursing home policies during the Covid era.

Cuomo called the federal government's response to the pandemic “misconduct” during Trump's time in office. “From day one, he willfully deceived the American people and denied the very real threat of Covid,” the former governor said of Trump. “His lies and denials delayed our response, allowed the virus to spread, and this country never caught up.”

Cuomo recalled the shortage of necessary medical supplies in the early days of the pandemic, saying, “It was the Covid Hunger Games, the federal government was nowhere to be found.”

Cuomo, a Democrat, has been out of office for several years, but the tense public hearing provided a high-profile opportunity for Republicans to grill the former governor after he testified behind closed doors to members of the House select committee on the coronavirus pandemic in June.

The hearing focused on nursing home deaths and a controversial March 2020 New York State Department of Health directive on hospital discharges and nursing home admissions. Republicans argued that Cuomo had not taken responsibility for policy missteps. The former governor also faced targeted questioning from some Democrats on the panel.

“It’s in your hands,” Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee, told Cuomo at the start of the hearing.

Representative Raul Ruiz, the panel's top Democrat, said at the end of the hearing that he understood that those listening to Cuomo's testimony “may or may not be satisfied” with his answers.

“Too many families have lost loved ones and many families are still looking for answers. They deserve those answers. I understand that we may or may not be satisfied with the answers Governor Cuomo provides. I recognize that questions remain about the transparency of his administration.”

“In assessing these questions, we must look objectively at the facts… we must not allow our collective memory of the early pandemic years to be clouded by hasty blame. We must remember that across the country, officials at every level of government were struggling to make the right decisions to protect people. It was difficult to recognize the right decisions at the time.”

The former governor also sent a message to the families of the pandemic victims: “I am sorry for your loss and I believe you are entitled to an apology because this country should have done better.”

Republicans on the panel questioned the former governor's sincerity and pressed him for answers about his handling of the pandemic.

Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York told Cuomo during the hearing: “You have shown no compassion, you have shown no remorse, you have taken no responsibility for the actions of your administration. That is simply not leadership.”

At the start of the hearing, Wenstrup announced a subpoena seeking to compel New York Governor Kathy Hochul's office to release documents related to Cuomo's response to the pandemic.

“We hope that Governor Hochul will keep her promise of transparency and proceed without further delay,” Wenstrup said.

Hochul spokesman Avi Small said in a statement that the governor “is committed to transparency and immediately released additional COVID-19 data the day she took office” and that “today's action is surprising given the subcommittee's previous comments expressing appreciation for the state's prompt and comprehensive cooperation, but we fully intend to comply with the law on this matter.”

Cuomo was in the national spotlight at the beginning of the outbreak for speaking daily about the coronavirus and making passionate pleas to the federal government for more medical equipment. But he later found himself at the center of controversy over nursing home deaths. The former governor defended his handling of the pandemic, saying the state had followed federal guidelines.

New York State's handling of nursing homes and their residents during the pandemic has been under scrutiny, particularly after the state Department of Health issued a controversial advisory on hospital discharges and nursing home admissions on March 25, 2020.

The recommendation states that residents should not be denied admission to nursing homes “solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19” and that nursing homes “are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident whose medical condition is considered stable to undergo a COVID-19 test prior to admission.”

In May 2020, Cuomo issued an executive order requiring patients to test negative for Covid-19 before being discharged from a hospital to a nursing home.

Cuomo said New York has followed federal guidelines in placing coronavirus patients in nursing homes and that the recommendation is consistent with guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Before Tuesday's hearing, Republicans on the House committee released a 48-page memo saying Cuomo “was involved in the decision that led to the March 25 directive.”

The memo goes on to say that the order was “inconsistent with current federal guidelines for hospital-to-nursing home transfers and for controlling COVID-19 infections” and that the directive ultimately had “predictable but disastrous consequences.”

The memo also accuses the Cuomo administration of manipulating data to conceal the extent of nursing home deaths and alleges that senior advisers to the governor influenced a Department of Health report to shift blame for the deaths among nursing home residents.

As part of its investigation, the subcommittee interviewed Cuomo and about 10 of his aides and reviewed more than 550,000 pages of documents.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before the same subcommittee on the pandemic at a controversial public hearing in June.

Cuomo's spokesman Azzopardi said in a statement: “This MAGA congressional committee failed to confirm the big lie it has been spreading for years: its report does not conclude that there is any causal link between the March 25 Health Department's guidance and nursing home deaths.” The statement said the claim that Cuomo was involved in the guidelines is “not only not supported by the testimony they cite,” but is also in “direct contradiction” to the testimony of a former Health Department official.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James released a report in 2021 finding that the New York State Department of Health underestimated the number of Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents by about 50%. The New York State Department of Health underestimated the number of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes during Cuomo's tenure by thousands, a 2022 audit conducted by state officials found.

Critics argued that counting only residents who died in nursing homes and excluding those who died in hospitals resulted in a much lower number of nursing home deaths, which helped Cuomo create the impression that New York had responded better to the pandemic than other parts of the country.

Azzopardi said in the statement that the report shows that “the compilation of data on nursing homes outside the facility was initially withheld because there were legitimate concerns about accuracy.”

Cuomo was investigated by the Justice Department, the Manhattan District Attorney, the New York Attorney General and the New York State Assembly, none of which brought charges over his handling of the pandemic.

A committee press release announcing the memo further stated that current New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, has been “uncooperative” with requests for documents and information. The panel is “considering next steps,” including “the possible issuance of a subpoena.”

The memo states that the New York State Executive Chamber did not submit documents until February 2024, “more than eight months after the original request,” but notes that the panel “has since received three separate submissions totaling 373,999 documents.”

Cuomo was first elected governor in 2010 and served nearly three full terms before resigning in August 2021 after a report from James' office was released that found he had sexually harassed several women. Cuomo has denied the allegations.

This story and headline have been updated due to further developments.

CNN's Paul LeBlanc, Annie Grayer and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.