AOC does something useful: Calls for 'full investigation' into Cuomo nursing home scandal

Ebony Bowden
New York Post
Fri, 19 Feb 2021 18:12 UTC

© Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Ge

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mounting nursing home crisis.

New York State Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay says 'there is enough evidence to being this process," giving an update on the move to impeach the governor of New York.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo's mounting nursing home crisis.

"I support our state's return to co-equal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration's handling of nursing homes during COVID-19," the Queens Democrat wrote in a statement Friday.

"Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes throughout the pandemic. Their loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from their elected leadership, and the Secretary to the Governor's remarks warrant a full investigation."

The Cuomo administration is under fire over its alleged cover-up of New York nursing home deaths, which a state attorney general probe found were 50 percent higher than state authorities said.

Last week, The Post revealed that Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, privately admitted to state lawmakers that the administration deliberately withheld data on COVID-19 nursing home deaths from federal prosecutors out of fear that the true numbers would "be used against us."

The scandal has only grown in recent days after state Assemblyman Ron Kim, another Queens Democrat, accused Cuomo of threatening to "destroy" him unless he helped contain the fallout from the political maelstrom.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo's mounting nursing home crisis.Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Ge

A dozen state Assembly Democrats announced their support for Kim and publicly backed legislation introduced by the Queens lawmaker seeking to strip Cuomo of his pandemic-related emergency powers.

A letter signed by nine state Democratic lawmakers also accused the besieged governor of obstruction of justice and demanded an investigation into his handling of the health crisis in nursing homes.

"As a co-equal branch of government, the Legislature is well within its rights to seek oversight of executive action. In fact, we have a duty to seek that oversight," the lawmakers wrote Thursday.

The FBI and the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York have since opened an investigation into Cuomo's handling of the crisis, sources told The Post on Wednesday.

Comment: Fox News reports on the movement building against Andrew Cuomo:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's political tactics are "to bully" and to "be filled with revenge and spite and backstabbing," U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., told "Hannity" on Friday.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee chimed in with his own observations during the same show.

"You know you're in trouble when you're Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat governor of New York, and you got AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Alec Baldwin and members of your own party who smell the blood in the water and they're coming after him," said Huckabee, who joined Zeldin, Fox News contributor Charles Hurt and host Jason Chaffetz.

"His bullying has finally caught up with him and people are no longer pretending they're afraid of him, and they're speaking out," Huckabee added. "I think his time is limited. He may finish his term, but I think this is the last thing he'll do politically."

CNN and the governor's brother, Chris Cuomo, have deflected and downplayed Cuomo's controversies, with the far-left network giving its developments little to no airtime -- and giving host Chris Cuomo, the governor's little brother, free rein to conduct friendly, comical interviews with his older sibling.

"I still say, from 30,000 feet up, the far worst crime is the cover-up by the media," Hurt argued. "The degree to which the media is treating him like some kind of hero, treated him like some kind of hero from the beginning ... We're talking about thousands of people who died because of a directive he issued forcing COVID patients -- highly-transmissible, infectious COVID patients -- into nursing homes, into rooms with our most vulnerable people in the country."

As the outrage toward Cuomo grows, Huckabee says the Democratic governor's arrogance will do him in.

"Cuomo is simply unwilling to be accountable for his decisions ... " he claimed.

"His arrogance is so overwhelming that he refuses to say, 'I was wrong.' People will forgive you for being wrong, they will not forgive you for being arrogant and unwilling to accept responsibility when you have that job," Huckabee added.

As for what happens next, Zeldin predicted Cuomo would be stripped of his emergency powers, which are due to expire April 30.

"The Republicans in the New York State Assembly are pushing for impeachment ... It seems like there might be some Democratic support for that, we'll see where that goes ...

"There are a lot of different components here as to why Governor Cuomo needs to go ...," Zeldin concluded. "I'm a proud New Yorker. If we want to save our state, Cuomo's got to go."