Cuomo killed thousands of seniors but callously addressed the COVID nursing home report this way: “Who cares?” And the enemedia sings this mass murderer’s high praises while excoriating Florida’s governor for doing a spectacular job.
America is under siege and half the country doesn’t know it.
Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa admits they hid nursing home data so feds wouldn’t find out
By Bernadette Hogan, Carl Campanile and Bruce Golding. NY Post, February 11, 2021:
The stunning admission of a coverup was made by secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because “right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,” according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting.
“He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said. “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”
In addition to attacking Cuomo’s fellow Democratic governors, DeRosa said, Trump “directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.”
“And basically, we froze,” she told the lawmakers on the call.
“Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”
DeRosa added: “That played a very large role into this.”
After dropping the bombshell, DeRosa asked for “a little bit of appreciation of the context” and offered what appears to be the Cuomo administration’s first apology for its handling of nursing homes amid the pandemic.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that restaurants can be open for in-door dining on September 30 at 3rd ave office.
“Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”
DeRosa added: “That played a very large role into this.”
After dropping the bombshell, DeRosa asked for “a little bit of appreciation of the context” and offered what appears to be the Cuomo administration’s first apology for its handling of nursing homes amid the pandemic.
Cuomo callously addresses COVID nursing home report: ‘Who cares!’
But instead of a mea culpa to the grieving family members of more than 13,000 dead seniors or the critics who say the Health Department spread COVID-19 in the care facilities with a March 25 state Health Department directive that nursing homes admit infected patients, DeRosa tried to make amends with the fellow Democrats for the political inconvenience it caused them.
COVID-19 deaths in NY nursing homes were 50 percent higher than claimed: probe
“So we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) immediately rejected DeRosa’s expression of remorse, according to the recording.
“I don’t have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I don’t give that any credit at all,” said Gottfried, one of the lawmakers who demanded the death-toll data in August.
State Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Rachel May (D-Syracuse) — who was battered during her re-election bid last year over the issue of nursing home deaths — also ripped into DeRosa, saying her former opponent had launched another broadside earlier in the day.
“And the issue for me, the biggest issue of all is feeling like I needed to defend — or at least not attack — an administration that was appearing to be covering something up,” she said.
“And in a, in a pandemic, when you want the public to trust the public health officials, and there is this clear feeling that they’re not coming, being forthcoming with you, that is really hard and it remains difficult.”
But instead of a mea culpa to the grieving family members of more than 13,000 dead seniors or the critics who say the Health Department spread COVID-19 in the care facilities with a March 25 state Health Department directive that nursing homes admit infected patients, DeRosa tried to make amends with the fellow Democrats for the political inconvenience it caused them.
see also
COVID-19 deaths in NY nursing homes were 50 percent higher than claimed: probe
“So we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) immediately rejected DeRosa’s expression of remorse, according to the recording.
“I don’t have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I don’t give that any credit at all,” said Gottfried, one of the lawmakers who demanded the death-toll data in August.
State Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Rachel May (D-Syracuse) — who was battered during her re-election bid last year over the issue of nursing home deaths — also ripped into DeRosa, saying her former opponent had launched another broadside earlier in the day.
“And the issue for me, the biggest issue of all is feeling like I needed to defend — or at least not attack — an administration that was appearing to be covering something up,” she said.
“And in a, in a pandemic, when you want the public to trust the public health officials, and there is this clear feeling that they’re not coming, being forthcoming with you, that is really hard and it remains difficult.”
Melissa DeRosa privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19.Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), who took part in the call, told The Post on Thursday that DeRosa’s remarks sounded “like they admitted that they were trying to dodge having any incriminating evidence that might put the administration or the [Health Department] in further trouble with the Department of Justice.”
“That’s how I understand their reasoning of why they were unable to share, in real time, the data,” Kim said.
see also
“It’s not enough how contrite they are with us,” he said. “They need to show that to the public and the families — and they haven’t done that.”
In addition to stonewalling lawmakers on the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19, Cuomo’s administration refused requests from the news media — including The Post — and fought a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Empire Center on Public Policy.
Instead, it only disclosed data on the numbers of residents who died in their nursing homes.
But after state Attorney General Letitia James last month released a damning report that estimated the deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals would boost the grim tally by more than 50 percent, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker finally released figures showing the combined total was 12,743 as of Jan. 19.
Just a day earlier, the DOH was only publicly acknowledging 8,711 deaths in nursing homes.
In a Wednesday letter to lawmakers, Zucker said the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19 had increased to 13,297. That number jumps to 15,049 when assisted living/adult care facilities are factored in.
The controversy generated by James’ report led to an infamous news conference at which Cuomo callously dismissed the matter of where nursing home fatalities actually took place.
“Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,” he said.
During Wednesday’s conference call, DeRosa said it appeared the DOJ was no longer focused on New York’s nursing home deaths.
“All signs point to they are not looking at this, they’ve dropped it,” she said.
“They never formally opened an investigation. They sent a letter asking a number of questions and then we satisfied those questions and it appears that they’re gone.”
In a prepared statement, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said, “We explained that the Trump administration was in the midst of a politically motivated effort to blame democratic states for COVID deaths and that we were cooperating with Federal document productions and that was the priority and now that it is over we can address the state legislature.”
“That said, we were working simultaneously to complete the audit of information they were asking for,” he added.
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Tasmanian Devil
3 years ago
As bad as this killer is, the fact remains that the morons allowed to vote in NY keep electing Cuomos and Cuomos keep killing and destroying everything they touch!
I’m not sure the voting fraud scam isn’t widely used by Democ-rats eveywhere for decades now.
Headcase Commie Cuomo is such a narssisistic loser kind of dorky and pathetic ignoramous there’s no way he can be loved as a leader except by out of touch weirdo simpleton kind of people..not the normal people he stated “you don’t belong in NY”.
It’s always painful to hear him lying online with his weird tyrannical gangster style rhetoric…!
Image he was your brother inlaw?
“Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for from COVID-19 — telling them “we froze” out of fear that the true numbers would “be used against us” Um, if that isn’t an admission of criminal activity, I don’t know what is. They want to be excused because they feared the backlash?? Really? If they are admitting to this “error,” then you can bet, there is a whole lot of other similar things they have done they are not admitting to. This was just an 11th hour damage control effort. Why aren’t there criminal charges being filed this very minute. Oh, that’s right. Because the entire Biden admin is filled with criminals. Expect this to be forgotten real soon and the killings to resume. Move along, nothing to see here.
Achmed Mohandjob
3 years ago
This is going to go nowhere. A Left Wingnut Regressive state and a federal government that is FULLY CONTROLLED by Left Wingnut Regressives ….
Is anyone naive enough to believe that there is any justice in that state, or for that matter, in The United States of America?
They’d kill you or me and say –
“It was required in the circumstances.”
Ziggy46
3 years ago
I had mentioned this horrific fact to Liberals months ago. They, of course, were stupefied by the fake news disseminated by the far-left MSM. Ignorance is divine when it comes to Liberalism, Marxists, Fascists, Maoists, and every despotic politics infesting this gormless nation and world. There is, now, back-peddling by the said aide and others bent on covering Cuomos’ ass.New York State’s electorate reaped what they sowed; a Hitlerian wannabe.
The Left or the so-called Democrats’ base is corruption, sedition, and out-and-out disloyalty to the American people. Cuomo, the Devil’s spawn, meets the lowest benchmark of humanity, whether politically or personally. Remember, the faux-Democrats considered whether Cuomo should become the Party’s presidential candidate while they feared bumbling Biden would lose to Trump. Instead, they opted for another method, stealing the election.
1PierreMontagne1
3 years ago
Cuomo directed a heinous event to take place in order to increase the Covid stats to justify his Dictatorial actions – to many sainted mothers of powerful people died because of Cuomo’s actions – Cuomo already knows he is a dead man walking. Now the disrespect of the families is being shown in this latest release and the further insult is that Cuomo has not yet paid.
volksnut
3 years ago
I’d say the countries under siege and the other half are complicit –
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