New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration should be investigated for possible obstruction of justice in handling information on the death toll in nursing homes during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Lee Zeldin, RNY , told “America Reports” Friday.
The New York Post reported on Thursday that Cuomo’s secretary, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to state Democratic lawmakers that the government withheld the data for fear that it could “be used against us” by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice.
Last month, the New York State Attorney General’s office released a report finding that the Cuomo government dramatically underestimated deaths in nursing homes.
REP. LEE ZELDIN: “I just want to say that [Fox News senior meteorologist] Janice Dean has been doing a fantastic job for many months, coming back last spring and summer, to bring this problem to light … The AP reported that more than 9,000 infected patients were placed in healthy nursing homes as a result of the deaths that came in the weeks and months that followed this late March policy, that mandate, there were many requests for information, data, numbers on deaths in nursing homes and more, and then a cover-up began.
There have been requests from the feds to the state for information about this, and the state was not providing … I believe, and my colleagues in the New York Congressional delegation believe and many others also, that there should be an investigation into this … There is an admission of what could be an obstruction of justice …
CUOMO AIDE SAID THE NY DEMOCRATS ADMINISTRATION HIDDEN DOMESTIC NURSING DATA TO KEEP FROM TRUMP DOJ: REPORT
Investigation is what you need to do to determine who specifically should be held accountable from a criminal justice standpoint. The obstruction of justice seems to be admitted in what the New York Post was reporting last night … There are thousands of elderly people in New York who died as a result of this policy, and you cannot look at it as data or figures. They are families like Janice’s and so many others where they lost a father or mother or grandmother or grandfather and aunt and uncle and are demanding accountability …
Many Democratic state legislators are indignant about what happened, because regardless of any kind of relationship they may have with the governor and his party’s cabinet, it is their duty to represent their constituents … They don’t want to be part of a cover-up. ..
Zeldin also discussed the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump and the pressure to reopen schools across the country.
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ZELDIN: I have ninth graders at home, twin girls. And I see the consequences for them and their peers for having to do all this remote learning. The mental impact of this, the emotional impact … And not just from the social point of view of being around, not just from friends and their teachers, but most importantly to learn. It is much better to learn inside the classroom … It has to happen now … It must be next week.
[Trump’s lawyers are] are doing a great job today and are pointing out some very important points … Hypocrisy has no limits … You can’t just say that when the president said to fight like hell you can’t even consider the possibility that it was a metaphor. “