Cuomo Comes Under Fire at Debate Over Nursing Home Covid Deaths
Andrew Cuomo's actions during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, and how they have may have led to a disproportionate number of deaths at nursing homes while he was governor, became a flashpoint in Wednesday night's debate.
Mr. Cuomo defended the state's leadership during the crisis, suggesting that New York ranked 38th in nursing home deaths, and pushed back against accusations that his administration undercounted nursing home deaths.
But New York's attorney general found that the Cuomo administration undercounted nursing home deaths by several thousand. Mr. Cuomo later acknowledged as much, attributing the lower figure to fears that the Trump administration would use the data as a political weapon.
Mr. Cuomo has come under fire for guidance, issued by the New York State Health Department in March 2020, that directed nursing homes to readmit patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Opponents of Mr. Cuomo assert that this guidance led to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of older New Yorkers in nursing homes. Mr. Cuomo has maintained that his administration was following federal guidelines.
The problems for Mr. Cuomo and his aides worsened after his administration published a report later in 2020 shifting blame for those deaths. Reporting by The New York Times revealed how Cuomo and his top aides had edited the report to conceal how many nursing home residents died in the pandemic, a finding that congressional investigators also reached. Several state and federal entities, including the Justice Department, looked into Mr. Cuomo's actions but did not pursue criminal charges.
Mr. Cuomo would not answer when asked directly whether he had personally rewritten portions of the 2020 report.
More recently, The Times reported that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into Mr. Cuomo and whether he lied to Congress. It came about a month after a Republican House committee chairman reiterated his call for Mr. Cuomo to be prosecuted for decisions he made during the pandemic.
The debate moderators pressed Mr. Cuomo on whether he had lied to Congress. He said he had not lied.
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