Cuomo Defends Covid Response at Hearing Amid Possible Mayor Bid

(Bloomberg) -- Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo defended his handling of the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes in 2020 at a politically charged congressional hearing where Republicans highlighted an issue they aim to make a liability for Democrats this November.

The political stakes are personal for the former governor, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations in August 2021, as he considers a possible 2025 comeback campaign for New York City mayor. Cuomo has denied the allegations.

The GOP-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic called the hearing on Tuesday to gather information on how to better handle future pandemics, but there was a partisan edge to the sparring between Cuomo and lawmakers. A broader Republican effort aims to link Democrats such as vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, to restrictive coronavirus policies. 

“When were you negotiating for your multimillion dollar advance deal for your book as seniors were dying in nursing homes?” Republican Represenative Elise Stefanik of New York asked Cuomo. Stefanik was referring to the book Cuomo published in late 2020, American Crisis, that was briefly a bestseller. “It’s a disgrace.”

Cuomo, who was subpoenaed by the panel in March, publicly defended his administration’s handling of caseloads in nursing homes. He previously testified before the subcommittee behind closed doors.

At the Tuesday hearing, the former Democratic governor also repeated past claims that he was following federal guidance while blaming then-President Donald Trump for downplaying the danger from the pandemic at the time.

“New York was hit first and worst by Covid through no fault of its own,” Cuomo said in his opening statement. “These are all diversions to blame New York and other states for the culpability of the federal response.”

According to an interim report released Monday by the subcommittee, Cuomo’s administration mishandled the state response to Covid-19 in nursing homes and then withheld information about it from the public. The panel has eight Republicans and six Democrats among its members.

‘Half-Baked’

A spokesperson for Cuomo, Richard Azzopardi, dismissed the subcommittee report as politically motivated.

“This MAGA caucus report is all smoke and mirrors designed to continue to distract from Trump’s failed pandemic leadership and is predictably sloppy, half-baked partisan screed built upon uncorroborated, cherry-picked testimony and conclusions not supported by evidence or reality,” Azzopardi said in a statement.

Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland similarly pushed back at the subcommittee’s focus on Cuomo compared with Trump.

“I’m appalled by the majority’s decision to evade and bypass the central events of the epidemic for totally political reasons,” Raskin said. “The broader and authentic context for this hearing is, of course, the failure of Donald Trump’s reckless and incompetent pandemic response.”

Separate New York probes by the Democratic-controlled state Assembly and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, reached similar conclusions that the Cuomo administration undercounted coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.

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