Cuomo avoids reporters after PM meeting in nursing home scandal

Governor Andrew Cuomo avoided reporters on Friday amid growing controversy over the Post’s revelation that a senior official admitted his administration withheld data on nursing home deaths due to a federal investigation In progress.

Although he traveled to Washington, DC, for a high-level meeting at the White House, Cuomo later gave up and did not appear in public – although Republican Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson spoke to journalists outside.

The two men were part of a bipartisan group of governors and mayors who sat with President Biden in the Oval Office to discuss Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan.

In a statement released later that afternoon, Cuomo and Hutchinson – who are respectively president and vice-president of the National Association of Governors – said that “the president and his team have made it clear that they recognize and appreciated how essential this targeted assistance is. for our ability to recover from this pandemic. “

Biden’s “US bailout” is spending more than $ 50 billion on the cash-strapped Empire State, The Post exclusively reported earlier Friday.

During Friday’s daily White House press conference, press secretary Jen Psaki hijacked a reporter’s question about whether Biden still had confidence in Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic and whether the subject of the number of deaths in retirement homes was discussed during their meeting.

“Well, the President welcomed Governor Cuomo and a bipartisan group of Governors and Mayors to the White House today to get their point of view from the front lines, not give anyone a stamp of approval or seek his seal of approval – and discuss the urgency of adopting the US bailout, ”she said.

Cuomo faces calls for federal and state inquiries into comments made by Secretary to Governor Melissa DeRosa during a conference call with Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday night – the audio of which was obtained exclusively by The Post.

DeRosa said the Cuomo administration refused last year to disclose the actual number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19, fearing the damning numbers were “used against us” by the Justice Department .