11 June 2024: Cuomo Congressional Testimony on Deadly COVID Directive Taking Place Behind Closed Doors

Ex-New York Gov Andrew Cuomo to face House GOP committee over COVID nursing home deaths

The resigned-in-disgrace former state governor of New York Andrew M. Cuomo delivered testimony under oath behind closed doors to a U.S. Congress select subcommittee on 11 June 2024.

While the content of the arranged testimony will remain under wraps for now, it does mark one of the first attempts to hold Cuomo accountable for the consequences of his deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Here's an excerpt from the article describing what Cuomo faces in the U.S. Congress:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is paying a visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a closed-door transcribed interview with the House select subcommittee investigating the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo's handling of the pandemic as governor has been a significant focus of the panel's – in particular, a March 25, 2020, executive order by the then-governor that restricted nursing homes from refusing to admit or readmit residents "solely based on confirmed or suspect[ed] diagnosis of COVID-19."

"We want to uncover the circumstances that led to this. There has to be some kind of process where this was written up and he signed it. And we want to make sure that something like this is never repeated," subcommittee Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital. "I'm a physician who happens to care. And I'm concerned for my fellow Americans, especially during a very difficult time in a pandemic. So, who advised such things?"

Wenstrup said committee investigators have "several hours of questions" lined up for the former governor, such as "Why was he spending so much time writing a book while we had a pandemic going on, while we have this nursing home problem?" and "Why did it take him so long to rescind [the executive order] when it became very obvious that this was a bad plan?"

A spokesperson for the committee's Democrat minority told Fox News Digital, "The Select Subcommittee Democrats take seriously any effort to evade transparency and mislead the public and remain committed to the forward-looking work of fortifying infection control and prevention to protect America’s nursing homes residents."

A damning 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.

We'll see what other headlines come out from it.