Cuomo Pressured for Apology Over Nursing Home Deaths

On Tuesday, Lawrence Jones from FOX News urged Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate for mayor of New York City, to apologize for nursing home deaths during his tenure as governor. An audit from March 2022 highlighted that the New York State Department of Health had significantly miscalculated the number of patient deaths by not counting individuals who died after being transferred to hospitals.

In response, Cuomo defended his administration’s actions, claiming they followed all regulations related to nursing homes. This assertion drew criticism from Jones, who confronted him on this point. Cuomo explained, “We followed all federal regulations. We didn’t do anything wrong. Of course, we lost 80,000 people. The country lost 1.2 million people. It was scary.”

Jones responded, “Please say I’m sorry, Governor. Why not just tell the families of the victims that it was a pandemic? We were going through a tough time. I was learning certain things on the job. But I’m sorry you lost your loved one. It would really help a lot of people.”

Cuomo claimed he had expressed remorse but emphasized that he was merely adhering to federal guidelines. He stated, “That’s exactly what I said. New York was the first and worst. No one knew what we were dealing with. We followed the best advice. And people died in a horrible way. I apologize for the families who have lost loved ones during this time.”

During the early days of the pandemic, Cuomo mandated that nursing homes accept patients who had recently recovered from the virus, leading to approximately 15,000 deaths among nursing home residents. Reports indicated an estimated 6,000 fatalities by July 2020.

A January 2021 report by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that nursing home deaths had been underreported by up to 50%. Despite this information, Cuomo avoided directly confirming the accurate death toll during a June mayoral debate and denied misleading Congress about the numbers.

He stated, “No, I told Congress the truth. We’re 38th out of 50 states. Compared to what other states experienced, we’re among the 12 states that faced the worst and had a lower death rate.”

In May, the Department of Justice initiated a criminal investigation into whether Cuomo provided false information to Congress regarding nursing home deaths.