Sen. Rand Paul called for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be removed from office as a result of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think Gov. Cuomo should be impeached for what he did, for the disastrous decision he made to send patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes,” Paul said this week on Fox News’s Rundown podcast. “And virtually half his people who died were in nursing homes.”
Cuomo has taken heat in recent weeks from Republicans for a March 25 order that required some recovering coronavirus patients to be placed in nursing homes around the state.
The order was in effect for 46 days, when 6,000 recovering coronavirus patients were placed in homes or other long-term care facilities while they recovered from the virus.
“Older people, vulnerable people are going to die from this virus. That is going to happen despite whatever you do,” Cuomo said in May of the order. “Because with all our progress as a society, we can’t keep everyone alive.”
Paul, who has been critical of statewide lockdown measures, said Cuomo also needlessly destroyed hundreds of businesses in his state.
“The people we are lauding are actually making catastrophic decisions,” Paul said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease doctor, praised Cuomo last week for his response to the pandemic, saying other states should look to his policies as a model for dealing with the disease outbreak.
“New York got hit worse than any place in the world,” Fauci said. “And they did it correctly by doing the things that you’re talking about.”
A Republican, Paul has questioned Fauci’s expertise since the early days of the pandemic.
“Paging Dr. Fauci! According to JHU, NY’s per capita death rate is more than 2X greater than Italy Spain & Britain & more than 8X worse than Florida & 10X worse than Texas,” Paul tweeted this week. “For you to say NY got it done correctly disregards the facts & calls your judgement into question.”
