New York Democrats on Capitol Hill say facts about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s actions related to COVID-19 nursing home deaths in their state need to be investigated and released.
Cuomo is under scrutiny by the FBI and the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York after his top aide revealed state officials hid the degree of the coronavirus death toll on nursing home facilities when the administration was previously under investigation by the Justice Department for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People want to know what’s taken place, “ New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks told the Washington Examiner. “Let the process work itself out. Folks are looking to see what was what, and then we can make a determination what should or should not happen thereafter.”
In New York’s state legislature, Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim and Republican lawmakers want an impeachment commission to begin its own investigation of the governor. Kim recently revealed Cuomo threatened him after voicing criticism over the nursing home scandal.
Both Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of the state legislature are currently discussing legislation to rein in Cuomo’s executive emergency powers before they expire at the end of April.
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Additionally, 11 elected members of the New York Democratic Party have proposed a resolution to censure Cuomo.
New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez told the Washington Examiner that if the state legislature has the information to hold Cuomo accountable, they need “to do what they need to do.”
“The Senate and Assembly, they have the evidence. They have facts. And my guess is that they need to do what they need to do. Obviously, there were mistakes that were made, and, obviously, there are criticisms about his handling of Assemblyman Ron Kim,” she said. “We need to treat everyone with respect.”
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New York Rep. Yvette Clark says Cuomo is already “being held accountable.”
“I know that our attorney general is doing a deep dive on what’s taking place. And I think that’s where it’s most relevant because the people of the state of New York need to know, know exactly what took place and why,” she said.
When asked about Kim’s call for impeachment and the censure proposal, Clarke responded, “I think we need to do an investigation, get to the bottom of it and, if indeed it requires that level of intervention on reining in the power of the governor, then so be it. But that’s going to be up to the state legislators to decide.”
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The first member of the New York delegation among Democratic lawmakers to support an investigation of Cuomo, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, told the Washington Examiner, “We need a full accounting of what happened, and then we can have any discussions about accountability, but you need to know what the facts are first.”
