Cuomo fails to address nursing home cover-up admission

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday attempted to get out of the biggest hole of his career by blaming politics for the controversy that has ravaged his administration following the Post’s revelation that his main aide admitted to withholding data on the deaths in nursing homes during federal investigation.

In a virtual press conference in which he declined to answer a question from the Post, Cuomo claimed “there was nothing to investigate” regarding the cover-up to which Gov. Secretary Melissa DeRosa confessed during a conference call with Democratic lawmakers last week. .

Cuomo – who never directly addressed DeRosa’s taped remarks in which she admitted “we froze” on whether to clearly state nursing home deaths in the face of a Justice Department investigation – also reiterated its defense of a much criticized March 25 directive from the Health Service of nursing homes to receive COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals.

Cuomo said there had been “a lot of distortion” about the since canceled order, which he said was issued by “professionals doing their best” and following federal government guidelines.

Cuomo also reiterated that the state has consistently reported the number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19 – even though it only started releasing figures on those who died in hospitals afterwards. a damning report from state attorney general Letitia James, a fellow Democrat.

Last year there is a toxic political environment and everything is political, ”Cuomo said at the press conference in Albany.

“There are political positions and there are facts.”

Cuomo has repeatedly said he has taken responsibility for the “void” of official information that he says leads to conspiracy theories and “misinformation” amid the pandemic.

“No excuses. I accept responsibility for it. I am in charge,” he said.

“We were too focused on the job and solving the crisis of the moment… It created confusion, cynicism and pain for the families of loved ones

But Cuomo opposed a bipartisan move to strip him of his COVID-19 emergency powers following DeRosa’s remarks.

“Emergency powers have nothing to do with nursing homes,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo said lawmakers “can reverse any action I take.”

“They never reversed a single action,” Cuomo said.

“These are public health decisions, not local political decisions.”

Cuomo said that “this virus is serious” and that it “is difficult to close schools, to close restaurants”.

“These decisions should not be politicized,” he said.

“More people will die.”

Cuomo’s press conference marked his first public comments since the outrage that erupted last week after The Post obtained an audio recording of DeRosa’s revealed comments on Wednesday night.

During the more than two-hour meeting, DeRosa said the Cuomo administration rejected a legislative request for nursing mortality data because “we froze” after being contacted by federal prosecutors.

“Because then we were in a position where we didn’t know if what we were going to give to the Justice Department, or what we are giving you, what we are starting to say, was going to be used against us while we were “I don’t know if there was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa said.