Disgraced former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appear before a committee of House members to discuss his administration’s controversial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York nursing homes. The chairman announced on Friday that he had agreed to the.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio): “Governor Cuomo will appear before our select subcommittee on the pandemic on June 11th.” told CNN host Jake Tapper..
“This will result in the interview being transcribed at 10 a.m.,” Wenstrup added, indicating that the testimony will take place behind closed doors.
Cuomo’s agreement to testify comes more than a month after the Republican-led House Coronavirus Pandemic Select Subcommittee issued a subpoena seeking his testimony.
The three-term Democratic congressman resigned in 2021 amid a series of scandals, including allegations of a cover-up of COVID-19 deaths at a New York nursing home.
The former governor denies that his administration’s March 2020 policy requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients led to more deaths.
Nearly two years later, New York City’s auditor general found that Mr. Cuomo had “misled the public” by undercounting those deaths by more than 50%.
Cuomo’s order could have resulted in 1,000 additional nursing home deaths, according to an Empire Center analysis.
“I want to know why he did this,” Wenstrup told Tapper. “As a doctor who has treated infectious diseases, it goes against all medical common sense to put highly contagious patients in the most vulnerable position.”
Wenstrup noted that the committee first contacted Cuomo about nine months ago, but the former governor “ignored many of our requests.”
A spokesperson for the former governor disputed Wenstrupt’s claims.
“There’s no news here. We agreed to do this months ago,” Cuomo representative Rich Azzopardi said in a statement.
“This is a purely political issue, and the simple fact remains that this issue has been considered three times, not only by the Justice Department under President Trump and the Biden administration, but also by Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney, with no conclusion reached. “There is,” he added. “The actual review will focus on the other 10 states that have similar red and blue policies.”
A House committee announced this week that Dr. Anthony Fauci has agreed to testify about the origins of the pandemic and the government’s response.
His testimony is scheduled for June 3.
