Newsflash: Andrew Cuomo doesn’t support an investigation into the actions of…Andrew Cuomo.
As noted by The Daily Wire, on Monday, as he spoke to reporters via teleconference, the mayor of New York relayed he’s opposed to hiring an independent investigator to probe what happened with Big Apple nursing homes’ coronavirus death toll.
A reporter posed the following:
“State lawmakers today are investigating COVID-19 in nursing homes. … There’s been a lot of back-and-forth before about whether you have characterized some of these inquiries as partisan-based. Would you support an independent investigation in order to bridge some of this mutual suspicion about partisanship getting into a better public understanding of what exactly happened in group home facilities and nursing homes?”
He’s not into investigation:
“No, I wouldn’t do an investigation into whether or not it’s political. Everybody can make that decision for themselves.”
In Andrew’s view, if you have any view, you can see there’s no politics afoot:
“I think you’d have to be blind to realize it’s not political. Just look at where [the criticism] comes from, and look at the sources. And look at their political affiliation, and look at who wrote the letter in Congress. And look at what publications raise it and what media…networks raise it. It’s kind of incredible.”
That’s a lot to look at.
The nursing home topic is quite hot, but perhaps not to the mayor.
Here’s more from The Hill:
Activists, lawmakers like Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), and grieving loved ones such as Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost her in-laws to COVID in New York nursing homes, have all called for an independent investigation into how the March 25 order impacted the spread of the virus. The New York Department of Health report, which urgently concluded the policy had no significant impact on the untimely deaths, was largely dismissed as a joke.
Yet those requests seem to have fallen on deaf ears in the governor’s mansion, judging by Cuomo’s response. … [H]e subtly suggested that it’s only Fox News routinely calling for an independent investigation. He dismissed it as a political hit job.
Is it really only Fox? Last month, The New York Times asked, “Does Cuomo Share Blame for 6,200 Virus Deaths in N.Y. Nursing Homes?
“A state directive sent thousands of Covid-19 patients into nursing homes,” the Times noted, “but the Cuomo administration has given other reasons for the virus’s spread.”
As covered by RedState’s legendary streiff in May, one ‘reason” for nursing home deaths as per Andrew was people being rickety.
Streiff wrote, “In March, as Cuomo and his braintrust were running about like beheaded chickens shouting about models and Italy, his administration issued an order that required nursing homes to accept hospital patients recovering from Wuhan virus even if those patients were still contagious. The ostensible reason was moving recovering patients to nursing homes freed up hospital beds to treat the Wuhan created carnage. The problem, of course, was that a) there was no great influx of patients, b) nursing homes, already struggling with problems related to infections, were monumentally unsuited to caring for possibly contagious patients, and c) nursing homes are packed with the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.”
At the time, Andrew waxed, “Older people, vulnerable people, are going to die from this virus. That is going to happen. Despite whatever you do. Because with all of our progress as a society, we can’t keep everyone alive.”
As communicated during Monday’s conference, Cuomo believes the present pressure is hogwash:
“Look at the basic facts on where New York is versus other states, right? You look at where New York is as a percentage of nursing home deaths, it’s all the way at the bottom of the list of states. So I don’t think anyone — you know, what’s political, what’s not political, everyone can make their own decisions.”
The aforementioned journalist inquired about finding an “expert who ostensibly would not be political at all, would be trusted by Democrats, Republicans, independents alike, to investigate exactly what happened in nursing homes.”
Andrew schooled the media:
“Yeah, there is no such thing as a person who is trusted by all Democrats and Republicans. That person doesn’t exist.”
So what of the thousands — reported as 4,813 in May — who died in 351 of the city’s 613 nursing homes?
Well, we’re all in luck. As covered by RS contributor Bonchie, Cuomo’s already been checked thoroughly — by Cuomo:
I’ve got good news. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has conducted a thorough investigation of himself and found that sticking COVID-19 postive patients back into nursing homes had nothing to do with the mass carnage in those facilities. It was, according to his report, “other factors” that lead to the thousands of deaths in his state that did not occur in places like Florida and Texas.
Perfect. Andrew Cuomo doesn’t believe Andrew Cuomo needs to be scrutinized because he’s already been vetted. By Andrew Cuomo.
Nothing political to see here, folks.
-ALEX
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