New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo’s chief vaccination program, who reportedly called county executives to see if they support Cuomo during his multiple scandals.
According to The Washington Post, “vaccine czar” Larry Schwartz made the calls that made at least one county official fear that his response could damage the county’s ability to obtain vaccines and impact vaccine delivery.
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“What we hear about the governor and his team trying to link the supply of vaccines to political support, that is the definition of corruption,” de Blasio said at a news conference on Monday. “It is disgusting, it is dangerous. There are lives at risk and this cannot be tolerated.”
The mayor has asked for an investigation into what happened to Schwartz’s calls, in addition to the various ongoing investigations that Cuomo is facing.
“There needs to be a full investigation into this now, in addition to the investigation of the nursing home scandal, the investigation of sexual harassment and harassment,” de Blasio said. “There needs to be an investigation into what happened to the Tappan Zee bridge, but now, moreover, we need to investigate why a senior official in the governor’s office has clearly tried to link the supply of vaccines to political support.”
Fox News contacted Cuomo’s office to get a response to the mayor’s comments, but we did not have an immediate response.
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The governor is involved in one controversy after another. First, there were claims that its March 2020 guideline requiring health care facilities to receive residents with a positive coronavirus test led to thousands of deaths. State lawmakers then began to turn against the governor when an aide to Cuomo admitted that the government intentionally concealed data on the number of deaths in nursing homes. This was followed by several allegations of sexual misconduct, ranging from inappropriate comments to employees to a reported accusation that he palpated a female employee.
On top of that, Cuomo is facing pressure after an investigation by the Albany Times Union that the construction of a new bridge named after Cuomo’s father, former governor Mario Cuomo, has “structural security” problems and that the construction company company working on the project potentially covered up problems with broken screws.
De Blasio has long been at odds with Cuomo and has been his vocal opponent during recent scandals. The report of Schwartz’s calls to county officials prompted an NY1 reporter to ask if he fears his city could be retaliated against during the vaccine’s launch.
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“I’m going to tell you something, he better not call me because I’m going to tell him what he can do with it,” said de Blasio. “No, it is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it. And if we see any effort to reduce the supply of vaccines to New York City as a political retribution, we will do so openly.”
Schwartz, for his part, admitted to calling authorities, but insisted he did nothing wrong.
“I spoke with several county executives across the state to see if they were maintaining their public position that there is an investigation underway by the State Attorney General and that we should wait for the results of that investigation before drawing any conclusions,” he said. Schwartz to The Washington Post.
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“Nobody indicated that they were uncomfortable or that they didn’t want to talk to me,” he said.
An official who spoke to the Post allegedly filed a notification of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the State Attorney General’s Office. Other officials did not share the same concern, but some acknowledged that Schwartz “was not the best person” to make the call and that it was easy to see how anyone could fear that the call could lead to problems with the vaccine supply.
Peter Aitken of Fox News contributed to this report.