Cuomo says New Yorkers ‘should be very proud’ on COVID-19, but ‘federal government failed’ – 13WHAM-TV

WASHINGTON (WSTM-WTVH) Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill, testifying about how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been accused of misrepresenting the number of deaths reported inside state nursing homes during the pandemic.

Cuomo was peppered with questions from reporters as he walked into the closed interview with the Oversight Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo maintains New York committed no wrongdoing following investigations by the Department of Justice.

Cuomo was the face of New York's response to the pandemic at its height in the spring of 2020 when the virus ravaged the country and hit New York particularly hard.

Tuesday, Congressional Republicans grilled Cuomo about the March 2020 advisory which barred New York nursing homes from rejecting patients who tested positive for COVID-19. Some people say they lost family members because of the policy.

Cuomo aimed to defend himself from accusations the nursing home directive led to the needless death of nursing home patients.

The former governor insists the state followed directives issued by the Trump administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] and CDC did very extensive instructive guidance," he said, "and the investigations say New York followed the federal guidance."

Cuomo also claimed there are "two very different opinions on what happened during COVID," saying New York performed well, but not the federal government.

The former governor called the criticism purely political, saying only blue states were investigated and not red states, which issued the same directives.

"It's ironic today that you hear complaints about the weaponization of the justice system, when they nuclearized the justice system against Democratic states," he insisted.

Republican representatives Claudia Tenney and Elise Stefanik of New York criticized Cuomo on social media on the eve of his testimony.

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Cuomo says New Yorkers 'should be very proud' on COVID-19, but 'federal government failed' - 13WHAM-TV