Andrew Cuomo to testify before COVID Committee on pandemic blunders

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be grilled on his COVID blunders in Congress as Republicans zero in on public officials whose conduct during the pandemic has been brought into question. The ex-chief of the Empire State is expected to appear before the the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic for private interview on Tuesday.

The meeting comes just over a week after Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the panel that the lab-leak origin of COVID is a real 'possibility' and that the six-foot social distancing and children masking rules were not based on settled science. Lawmakers later accused Fauci of lying to Congress during his testimony.

According to the committee, Cuomo attempted to to delay the meeting for nine months by repeatedly dodging requests to talk. Only after subpoenaing the New York Democrat were they able to compel his testimony to learn more about his 'deadly' nursing home policies. 'Today, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will be held to account in front of Congress for the deadly pandemic-era nursing home policies issued under his watch,' the COVID committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said in a Tuesday statement.

Republicans on the committee are expected to hold Cuomo's feet to the flames on his decision to instruct nursing homes to accept COVID positive patients. 'This transcribed interview before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will delve deeper into the March 25th order than any investigation has before and hopefully provide the answers that so many devastated New Yorkers have been desperately seeking since 2020.' 

'The victims’ families deserve accountability — not only for the disastrous ‘must-admit’ policies, but for the coverup that ensued,' Wesntrup said, adding the 'interview is an opportunity for the former Governor to explain why inking his book deal was a higher priority than safeguarding New York’s nursing home residents.' 

'Mr. Cuomo’s forthcoming, honest, and transparent testimony is critical for improving our future public health responses and ensuring that deadly policies are never again implemented,' Wesntrup concluded. Lawmakers are also planning on asking Cuomo about his pressuring of former state appointees and New York officials to stay quiet on his March 25, 2020, 'must admit' nursing home order.

Further, they will probe him on his lucrative book deal detailing his leadership during the pandemic and his involvement and knowledge of manipulating data on tracking New York nursing home deaths. In preparing for the interview the committee held meetings with families impacted by that decision , which critics say resulted in scores of elderly Americans dying from the virus.

'After Mr. Cuomo issued deadly guidance that forced nursing homes and facilities to admit potentially contagious COVID-19 patients, more than 15,000 New Yorkers died in these healthcare establishments,' Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a medical doctor, told DailyMail.com in a statement. 'Even Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a damning report of the Cuomo Administration's mishandling and cover up to hide the true mortality rate.'

The doctor added: 'Meanwhile, the Governor had the audacity to publish a self-applauding book on 'leadership lessons' from COVID-19. As a medical doctor and former head of the Iowa Department of Public Health, I look forward to further "leadership lessons" from Mr. Cuomo's interview to avoid similar disastrous decisions during the next public health crisis.' Cuomo is expected to arrive for his interview around 9:30 a.m.

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