A woman holding a sign hugs another woman in front of a section of a memorial wall at a news conference in New York, March 21, 2021. The families gathered to grieve but wanted an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Blake's retort resulted in one of the debate moderators asking Cuomo once again to respond to the allegations that he lied to Congress about his role in drafting the report that undercounted the number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths. This time, he engaged.
"No, I told Congress the truth," Cuomo relented. "No, we did not undercount any deaths," he added. "When they are all counted, we're number 38 out of 50, which I think, shows that compared to what other states went through, we had it first and worst, and that only 12 states had a lower rate of death – we should really be thanking the women and men who worked on those things."
"It's just a yes or no question," the moderator shot back at Cuomo. "Were you involved in the producing of that report?"
Andrew Cuomo is sworn in to testify before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Sept. 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura)
In March 2020, Cuomo issued a directive that initially barred nursing homes from refusing to accept patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. The directive was meant to free up beds for overwhelmed hospitals, but more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients were ultimately released from hospitals into nursing homes under the directive, which was later rescinded amid speculation that it had accelerated outbreaks.
Subsequently, a report released in March 2022 by the New York state comptroller found Cuomo's Health Department "was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes" and it "understated the number of deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%" during some points of the pandemic. New York Attorney General Letitia James similarly released a report amid the pandemic showing New York state nursing home deaths had been undercounted.
Fox News' Greg Wehner and David Spunt contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-attacked-during-debate-fellow-dems-allegedly-lying-congress-about-covid-nursing-home-scandal