Cuomo blames nursing home scandal on ‘political attack’ by Trump admin Cuomo speaks in first public comments since scathing attorney general report
In his first public comments since a scathing attorney general report finding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration undercounted nursing home deaths, the governor on Friday argued criticisms of him were a “political attack” that began with the Trump administration.
“That was mean,” Cuomo said when the federal government blamed New York and other states for the nursing home COVID-19 deaths.
“Where this starts is frankly a political attack from the prior federal administration and HHS… Michael Caputo,” the Democratic governor continued.
Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs for the Health and Human Services Department under President Trump, fired back immediately in a statement: “Early on, experts at the Health and Human Services administration identified Cuomo’s foolish executive order as a primary cause for thousands of nursing home COVID deaths in New York. He’s right, I called him out on it immediately… Cuomo is personally responsible for thousands of unnecessary nursing home deaths and he must be held accountable.”
The report this week from Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, found that nursing home deaths from coronavirus were undercounted by about 50 percent.
“Everybody did the best they could,” he said. “If you think there was a mistake, then go talk to the federal government,” he said. “It’s not about pointing fingers or blame, this became a political football.”
“The commissioner said no not-for-profit nursing home was forced to take anyone,” he continued. “If they took someone they could not care for, a Covid positive person, they violated the law.”
Cuomo’s office hours earlier had confirmed that thousands more nursing home residents died of COVID-19 than the state’s official tallies had previously acknowledged.
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