New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo continued to deflect blame on Wednesday from the nursing home scandal he is facing after he issued an order, which his administration has since deleted, requiring nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients. Cuomo’s state ended up having the most COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes of any state.
During Cuomo’s press conference Wednesday, a reporter from the New York Post pointed out that the governor had suggested that President Trump was to blame for the state’s tragic handling of nursing homes and asked if the governor had brought up the issue when he met with Trump earlier in the day.
“Last week you blamed the 5,000 nursing home deaths in your… President Trump and the CDC guidelines. I’m wondering if you raise that issue with him today?” the reporter asked.
“No, but I never did that. I never did that,” Cuomo insisted.
“You said that anyone asking about nursing deaths in New York and the State’s policy should ask President Trump,” the reporter responded.
After saying that he was trying to make the point that criticism directed at him for the state’s nursing home disaster is unfair because he “took the same position, which is guidance from the CDC and our State Department of Health,” on how to handle COVID-19-positive patients regarding nursing homes, Cuomo suggested that his state has actually done well on the issue.
“In general, you look at how New York did, we’re in Washington, you look how New York did on nursing homes vis-a-vis the nation, we did better than 33 States in the nation, per capita on nursing homes,” said Cuomo.
Cuomo then took a shot at the Post for pressing him on the issue, accusing them of being “pro-Donald Trump” and wanting to “kill all Democrats.”
“There are columnists who made this point at the Post, who are 100% supportive of Donald Trump, and that’s fine, but then believe we have to kill all Democrats,” Cuomo claimed. “So I get it. I understand it. They’re open in their support of the Trump administration. And I guess their attitude is to be pro-Donald Trump you have to be anti-Democrat, which I don’t really understand. Be pro-Donald Trump.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
NEW YORK POST REPORTER: Hi, Governor. New York Post. Last week you blamed the 5,000 nursing home deaths in your… President Trump and the CDC guidelines. I’m wondering if you raise that issue with him today?
NEW YORK DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO: No, but I never did that. I never did that.
NYP REPORTER: You said that anyone asking about nursing deaths in New York and the State’s policy should ask President Trump.
CUOMO: No, what I said was this. Yes. I said, “They want to play politics with this, right?” There are Republicans who are trying to make political hay out of this, in my opinion. What I said to the Republicans who were making this accusation, “You have to find an accusation for it to work politically that you can make against the Democrat that is not a boomerang and comes back and affects the Republicans.” On the nursing homes, the issue they raised, our State Department of Health followed the same guideline as the CDC, which is a federal agency issued.
So it was my way of saying, thwarting the political attack, because you can’t say, “Oh, bad Democrat.” It’s an issue that a Republican administration took the same position, which is guidance from the CDC and our State Department of Health. Both of them said, “You can’t discriminate against a patient based on COVID.” That’s what they both said. But that was just on that specific.
In general, you look at how New York did, we’re in Washington, you look how New York did on nursing homes vis-a-vis the nation, we did better than 33 States in the nation, per capita on nursing homes. Nursing homes happened to be the place where this virus ravages, despite the fact that we had the greatest number of cases and we were in the eye of the storm. You look at us vis-a-vis the country, where we did better than 33 other states, then those are just facts. But I never blamed him for anything. I was just saying to the Republicans, “That’s not a political attack when the Republican administration had the guidance that did the same thing.” Yes, that factually correct?
…
Yeah. And the context for what I said was I said it to a Post reporter because look, I can say all I want, stay away from politics. We’re in an election year, and politics is in the air. There are columnists who made this point at the Post, who are 100% supportive of Donald Trump, and that’s fine, but then believe we have to kill all Democrats. So I get it. I understand it. They’re open in their support of the Trump administration. And I guess their attitude is to be pro-Donald Trump you have to be anti-Democrat, which I don’t really understand. Be pro-Donald Trump.
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