10 September 2024: Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Grilled on COVID-19 Nursing Home Policies

Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo grilled on COVID-19 nursing home policies

Andrew M. Cuomo gave public testimony under oath before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee. Here's the introduction to this report:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was grilled during his public testimony before Congress on Tuesday, defending his administration's nursing home policies during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hearing, before the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, saw a defensive Cuomo who largely stood by his decision-making during the pandemic -- including a March 2020 directive to readmit COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes -- and blamed the outsized death toll on what he described as former president Donald Trump's lack of leadership.

Cuomo previously testified before the subcommittee during a closed-door hearing in June. Transcripts from that interview, as well as with high-ranking officials during Cuomo's administration, were released Tuesday morning ahead of the public hearing.

While Cuomo attempted to deflect blame to former President Donald Trump in his testimony, the release of transcripts of testimony under oath to the subcommittee provided by his former aides paint a different picture of the governor and his top political staff in both signing off on the deadly 25 March 2020 directive and covering up the full extent of nursing home deaths that resulted.

9 September 2024: Aides: Cuomo 'Edited' Report Undercounting Nursing Home Deaths, 'Absolutely' Signed Off Deadly Directive

Cuomo aides knew his nursing home mandate would be ‘great debacle,’ helped gov ‘edit’ report that deflated deaths, House COVID panel finds

This report covers a number of allegations raised by several of former New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's former staff members regarding actions Cuomo and other members of his staff took to conceal the disastrous results of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive in official state reports. Here's a summary of the two biggest blockbusters from the introduction to this article:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly himself “edited” a state report that deflated New York’s COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes — which his top aides pressured health officials into releasing, despite knowing the issue would turn into a “great debacle,” according to the stunning results of an investigation by a US House committee.

Cuomo’s office “absolutely” signed off on the disastrous directive early in the pandemic forcing coronavirus patients back into nursing homes — leading to as many as 9,000 excess COVID deaths — the final congressional report and witness testimonies exclusively obtained by The Post show.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic conducted the probe and majority staff released the findings ahead of a public hearing with the 66-year-old ex-governor on Tuesday.

Cuomo had disputed the allegation he had signed off on the deadly 25 March 2020 directive while testifying under oath behind closed doors to the U.S. House subcommittee probing the matter in June 2024. That testimony was contradicted by another state official's testimony:

Cuomo and DeRosa told the House COVID subcommittee the order had been drafted by a “midlevel” New York Department of Health staff member based on guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The order apparently “surprised” Cuomo and DeRosa when both were asked about it at an April 20, 2020, press conference. It was taken down from the state health department website nine days later but remained operable for another month.

“I do not recall reviewing,” Cuomo testified. “I don’t recall seeing it.”

But Bradley Hutton, former deputy health commissioner, told the House committee that the governor’s office had “absolutely” signed off on the order.

Another state official, Cuomo's Director of Operations Jim Malatras, testified to the House subcommittee about the coverup of the full extent of nursing home deaths that resulted from the implementation of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

According to Cuomo’s then-director of operations, Dr. Jim Malatras, who served as a member of the governor’s COVID task force, top aide Melissa DeRosa “laid out the points that she wanted to have touched upon in the report.”

“The report that I was editing had the total number of fatalities in all the charts until Ms. DeRosa intervened,” Malatras testified to the subcommittee.

“She was constantly editing it, Mr. Cuomo was editing it,” Malatras said in his testimony.

“It was largely around language,” he added, saying the governor’s aides would push to “refashion those sentences to be more less causal, less definitive, and work back in some of the language that DOH had originally.”

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 September 2024.

3 September 2024: Cuomo to Give Public Testimony on COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandals to Congress

Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to testify before House COVID panel

On 11 June 2024, former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo testified under oath to a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives about his COVID nursing home deaths scandals. That testimony took place behind closed doors, where only a portion of his transcribed testimony has been made public.

On 10 September 2024, Cuomo will go back before the House subcommittee to give public testimony under oath. Here's how that news was reported by the New York Post:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to testify next week before a House committee investigating his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — including an infamous mandate that forced infected patients into nursing homes.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic announced Tuesday that it was preparing to question the ex-New York governor on Sept. 10 about the “unscientific guidance” that led to the deaths of thousands of senior citizens.

The article goes on to recap much of the Post's previous coverage of the ongoing story, scandals, and the Cuomo administration's attempted cover-up of the excess deaths that resulted from his deadly 25 March 2020 directive.