Congressman Lawler Joins NY Members in Holding Former Governor Cuomo Accountable for Disastrous Handling of COVID-19 in Nursing Homes

On Tuesday, June 11, Congressman Mike Lawler held a press conference with House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (OH-02) alongside New York Representatives Elise Stefanik (NY-21), Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), Claudia Tenney (NY-24), Marc Molinaro (NY-19), Brandon Williams (NY-22), Nick Langworthy (NY-23), and Nick LaLota (NY-01) reacting to Andrew Cuomo’s deposition to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on his disastrous handling of COVID-19 in New York nursing homes.

"All of us from New York know full well Andrew Cuomo is a phony and a fraud," says Congressman Lawler. "He put our most vulnerable population at risk, resulting in the death of over 15,000 seniors. And it was Andrew Cuomo who covered it up. It wasn't just the directive, which was bad enough and idiotic and resulted in the death of the 15,000 seniors. It was Andrew Cuomo, for political purposes, who directed the state government to cover up the death toll. It was Andrew Cuomo who had a blood money book deal making millions of dollars for himself at the expense of New Yorkers, who misused and abused New York state government resources to write his book despite his nonsensical lies today before the committee that he wrote the book himself. We all know what happened. We all know what Andrew Cuomo did. He's a liar. He's a fraud. And there's a reason he's a disgraced ex-governor. His conduct is unbecoming, and despite his best efforts to clean up his image and potentially try to run for office again, the reality is there's a greater likelihood of the Tappan Zee Bridge being renamed than Andrew Cuomo ever holding office in New York again."

"Today was a long, eventful, and informative day with Governor Cuomo, concerning primarily, but not only, the nursing home situation in New York that led to so many thousands of deaths," said Chairman Wenstrup. "The Governor was defensive throughout most of the day, often putting the blame on other people rather than himself. He didn't seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for what happened."

"Often, when he spoke about the number of deaths that took place, they were just numbers," Chairman Wenstrup continued. "It is mind-blowing to me that the Governor, who was later to rescind or amend the directive that went out about putting COVID patients or untested patients back into nursing homes, was the one who put the executive order out to amend it, but when it came to the executive order itself, he had no idea where it came from. I don't know where the buck stops."

"This day has been a long time coming," said Congresswoman Stefanik. "Each of our offices has heard from constituents who have lost loved ones resulting from Andrew Cuomo's fatal directive issued on March 25th regarding our nursing homes, forcing nursing homes to take positive COVID patients. But today's deposition was a step to delivering accountability and delivering long overdue answers to those families who are still mourning the loss of their loved ones."

"The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented crisis, and with that, Governor Cuomo took unprecedented power and claimed unprecedented power, and with that power, he did unprecedented and unnecessary harm," said Congressman Williams. "Even worse than the incompetence is the indifference. To all the families that suffer today and that suffered through that because of these terrible decisions, I hope that you find solace that we're demanding answers, that we're shining light in places where Governor Cuomo has taken unprecedented steps to cover up, to dodge, to weave, and to hide. Those days are over, and we're bringing accountability as the people of New York should expect from their government."