Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was branded a “lying sack of s—t” by furious families and lawmakers as he deflected blame in a heated congressional hearing Tuesday over his disastrous COVID nursing home order which led to thousands of deaths.
Over the course of the more than two-hour hearing on Capitol Hill, Cuomo was asked several times to apologize to the families in the room who lost loved ones during the outbreak — but never did.
“We have family members right here right now that lost their relatives because of that decision,” said Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.). “I think you should admit that it was wrong, and I’d think you would come off a lot better to those families if you’d just turn around and apologize.”
“You know I’m just going to say, ‘I’m sorry,’” McCormick went on after Cuomo refused to take him up on it. “I’ll say it. I’m sorry your families were exposed to COVID because people were put in the nursing homes that weren’t tested.”
Even when asked by Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell (Mich.) about his callous response — “Who cares?” — to the eventual disclosure of the full death count, the ex-governor declined to say he was sorry.
“I want to say Gov. Cuomo: I care,” Dingell said. “Every member of this committee cares. And more importantly every family member who lost a family member cares. So let’s be very clear about that.”
The “country should have done better,” was all Cuomo had to say to the families in an opening statement that largely shifted the blame to former President Donald Trump.
“He willfully deceived the American people and his lies and denial delayed our response, let the virus spread, and this country never caught up,” Cuomo told members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
“You’re a liar,” one person heckled Cuomo as he spoke with reporters after the hearing. “You killed my parents and thousands of others. You’re a liar. You’re in denial, a–hole.”
On his way out, Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) added to The Post: “It just confirmed that Andrew Cuomo is a lying sack of s—t.”
The hearing featured several fiery moments from New York’s members on the House Oversight Committee including an absolute drubbing by North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
The House Republican Conference Chairwoman grilled Cuomo over his $5 million book deal, and accused him of blaming his staff.
Stefanik also asked Cuomo whether he would stand up and apologize to the COVID-affected families, which he declined.
“You will never hold elected office again,” she boomed.
It was one of several times that Cuomo played the blame game – pointing fingers at his staff, the feds and nursing homes themselves.
“And they never called me after. You would think if they had a problem with the directive they would’ve called,” Cuomo said, blaming the feds for not pointing out his order — estimated to have led to as many as 9,000 excess COVID deaths — ran counter to their guidance at the time.
“Did you even attempt to ensure that what you were declaring was accurate?” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said with exasperation.
“I did not speak with CMS,” Cuomo admitted, referring to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) even joked: “maybe it was that communist spy Linda Sun” who signed off on nursing home order after Cuomo refused to say who did — referring to his and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s former aide recently charged with acting as a foreign agent for China.
“He has doubled down and tripled down on these falsehoods,” Malliotakis told The Post of Cuomo as she left the hearing.
“I don’t know that he knew about this directive when it went out, but what I do know is Governor Cuomo, after this has blown up in his face, would get to the bottom of who did. So I don’t buy for a minute that he doesn’t know who signed off on that directive,” Malliotakis said, calling Cuomo “dishonest.”
“I took responsibility every day,” Cuomo lamented to a cadre of reporters before quickly pointing the finger back at Trump.
“I screwed up every day and addressed the people of the state and addressed millions of people across the nation. I took responsibility every day, unlike the president.”
One thing Cuomo did admit to, was instructing his secretary to write an email to his inner circle referring to the March directive as “the great debacle in the history books”.
“Yes,” he told Comer plainly when asked if his secretary wrote the email on his behalf.
His staffers recounted that they believed that email was part of the impetus to a July 2020 state report that significantly undercounted the number of nursing home deaths, according to earlier testimony provided to the house panel.
The criticism didn’t stop at the Republicans either. The panel’s lead Democrat Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Cali.) said in his opening statement that Cuomo was guilty of having “misrepresented” nursing home fatality data. Ruiz also accused Cuomo and his aides of having “obscured scrutiny” of the statistics.
“Lawler is an eccentric Trump thug is what he is, and that’s what he’s always been. He is a Trump right wing zealot. And his behavior as he demonstrates he is not fit for public office,” Cuomo said.
Republicans on the panel announced they were subpoenaing for records they have yet to receive from the New York Governor’s office, mostly pertaining to internal communications that could shed more light on who authorized the nursing home order and the impetus for handpicking data for the July 2020 report.
A spokesperson for Hochul said they will comply with the subpoena.
