Andrew Cuomo gets heated as he wrongly insist COVID nursing home deaths were not undercounted: ‘That's the Trump line'
Cuomo stood at center stage in the Democratic mayoral primary debate amid a pile up of criticism from the eight other candidates during a fiery NBC-Politico Democratic primary mayoral debate.
'No, we didn't undercount any deaths,' Cuomo loudly insisted during one particularly heated moment.
The harshest attack arguably came from the Rev. Michael Blake, a former Obama administration official, who scathingly evoked the sexual harassment accusations that led to the former governor's resignation.
'The people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,' Blake said.
'That's the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.'
Cuomo, who has vehemently denied the accusations from 11 women, uncharacteristically declined to respond.
Blake then seized the opportunity to send a message to to women watching the live debate.
'Everyone woman watching tonight, he was just given a chance to acknowledge the clear claims and he ignored it,' Blake said.
But Cuomo didn't stay silent when speaking about coronavirus death in nursing homes.
He got animated as he insisted nursing home deaths were not undercounted and also refused to say if he edited his administration's controversial report on the deaths — the lynchpin of the investigation into his time as governor by the Department of Justice.
'There was no doubt that my administration produced the report, and it did not undercount the deaths,' Cuomo eventually said but continued to defend his record.
Cuomo said COVID deaths were counted where they occurred — in hospitals or nursing homes.
But many of the 15,000 nursing home residents or patients died after they were gravely ill and transported to hospital.
And a damning 2021 report by state Attorney General Letitia James found that New York's nursing-home death toll from COVID-19 may be more than 50% higher than Cuomo's administration initially reported.
An audit in 2022 by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli also concluded the state Health Department intentionally 'misled the public' about the number of nursing home deaths from COVID-19 to help burnish Cuomo's reputation before a sexual harassment scandal forced him to resign as governor — claims he denied.
'It's very, it's very clear that's the Trump line, the MAGA line,' Cuomo claimed.
The moderators continued to push the ex-gov, but he refused to answer.
'I was very aware of the report,' he said.
Cuomo also dismissed a reported Justice Department probe that lied to Congress during his testimony about his handling of the pandemic.
'No, I told Congress the truth,' he said.
Rivals pounced.
Brad Lander, the city comptroller, accused Cuomo of 'lying' to Congress and 'grieving' nursing home families.
Blake accused Cuomo of refusing to answer the questions.
At least 4,000 residents died after Cuomo's administration issued a controversial March 25, 2020 mandate for nursing homes to admit 'medically stable' coronavirus patients.
Critics have argued the mandate led to the deaths.
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