Pelosi slams Cuomo’s claims that COVID aid is short of the $15bn needed

Nancy Pelosi has slammed Andrew Cuomo’s claim that COVID aid is short of the $15billion needed and said the federal package is worth $70bn – on the same day the governor was exposed for hiding the true nursing home death toll.  

The House Speaker sent a letter to congressional Democrats touting the settlement, which would far exceed the under-fire governor’s demands, as she strongly rejected his repeated claims the state was being short-changed in a rare rebuke from a close ally. 

The slap down is a fresh blow to Cuomo as he struggles to salvage his administration from a growing scandal that has seen calls for him to be prosecuted for what former New York governor George Pataki called ‘one of the worst’ cover-ups he had seen.

Cuomo’s administration has been rocked by the confession on Thursday of his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, that they deliberately hid the deaths of 4,000 nursing home residents from the official COVID toll in the midst of a Justice Department investigation into their handling of the pandemic.

In the two-page letter, sent on Thursday and seen by the Times Union, Pelosi touted the proposal for $50bn in state and local funding for New York and $20bn to help families’ ‘health, financial security and well-being’ and insisted Cuomo’s demands had been ‘addressed’. 

She wrote: ‘We sadly observe over 1.5 million coronavirus cases, nearly 45,000 deaths, and hundreds of thousands of job losses in New York. Please know that your concerns are being addressed in ways that you have advanced and with the enthusiastic advocacy of Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.’

Pelosi’s letter was sent to New York’s House Democrats in response to one they sent on Tuesday demanding more funding for the state. That in turn followed Cuomo’s own letter to the New York delegation demanding $15bn in direct local government relief.  

Cuomo met President Joe Biden to discuss the President’s $1.9trillion COVID relief package on Friday, a day after Pelosi’s letter vowing $70bn in direct aid.

He appeared sheepish as he and other governors joined the President and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, after which he refused to take questions from reporters.  

In recent weeks, a court order and state attorney general report has forced the state to acknowledge the nursing home resident death toll is nearly 15,000, when it previously reported 8,500 — a number that excluded residents who died after being taken to hospitals. 

The new toll amounts to about one-seventh of the people living in nursing homes as of 2019 in New York. 

Cuomo – who chairs the National Governors Association – made no mention of his $15bn relief demand in a statement issued jointly with vice chair Governor Hutchinson of Arkansas after Friday’s Oval Office meeting. 

The governor instead praised the President, saying Biden and his team ‘made clear that they recognize and appreciate how critical this targeted relief is for our ability to recover from this pandemic.’  

White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say on Friday whether Biden has lost confidence in Cuomo given the growing criticism.

The governor has repeatedly demanded $15bn in direct aid, saying earlier this week: ‘The state needs $15 billion, and that’s the actual need and that’s what we should get and if we don’t get $15 billion I will be disappointed and I don’t think it’s fair.’

He concerns were echoed in the New York delegation’s letter to Pelosi on Tuesday, which warned of a ‘dire financial crisis’ that would lead to ‘drastic and damaging steps to address the shortfall’. 

Pelosi’s rebuke came as critics upped the pressure on Cuomo, with former Governor George Pataki calling the cover-up  ‘one of the worst things I have seen in state government’ as he demanded a criminal investigation. 

Speaking to AM 570 WMCA radio, the Republican called Cuomo’s nursing home policies and death toll cover-up ‘inhumane,’ ‘reprehensible,’ ‘outrageous,’ ‘despicable’ and ‘beyond the pale.’ 

‘This is one of the worst things I have seen in New York State government, and I’ve been following this for a long time,’ Pataki said. 

He added his voice to calls to rescind Cuomo’s emergency powers to manage the COVID pandemic, a move currently being considered by New York State Assembly Majority, according to a report from NY1. 

Meanwhile, the New York governor’s brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was mocked online for failing to mention the scandal on his show on Friday. 

One social media user said she was ‘disappointed’, while another joked that there was ‘big news coming out of New York state’ that Chris Cuomo ignored.

‘How convenient,’ said another. 

On Friday night CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett covered the story, with Tapper tweeting that it ‘keeps getting worse’, but Chris Cuomo, 50, instead dedicated his entire show to Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.   

The scandal erupted on Thursday with a remarkable confession from Cuomo’s aide Melissa DeRosa that officials ‘froze’ in August when former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice asked for the data, before rebuffing the request.

DeRosa told state Democrats in a conference call obtained by The New York Post: ‘We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.’

The data remained secret for months until January, when a shocking report from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said the state had undercounted the number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent.

An outcry forced New York State’s Department of Health to reveal that the true death toll among nursing home residents was 12,743, rather than the previously acknowledged 8,711. 

New York had previously only counted residents who died in nursing homes, and left out 4,000 residents who were taken to hospital and died there. 

A conference is expected to be held discussing rescinding Cuomo’s emergency powers – which granted him the authority to suspend existing statutes or effectively create new laws – a new report states.  

A growing number of Democrats are said to be joining Republicans’ calls for a revocation, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

On Friday, 14 Democratic New York State Senators joined Republicans in calling for Cuomo’s pandemic emergency powers to be rescinded.

‘Without exception, the New York State Constitution calls for the Legislature to govern as a co-equal branch of government,’ they wrote.

‘While COVID-19 has tested the limits of our people and the state – and early during the pandemic, required the government to restructure decision making to render rapid, necessary public health judgement – it is clear that the expanded emergency powers granted to the Governor are no longer appropriate.

‘While the executive’s authority to issue directives is set to expire April 30, we urge the Senate to advance and adopt a repeal as expeditiously as possible.’ 

Neither Cuomo’s office nor the Senate Majority Leader’s office nor the New York State Assembly office have returned DailyMail.com’s request for comment.  

Cuomo has not yet issued a statement acknowledging DeRosa’s bombshell admission, but was seen at a morning meeting with Biden and other leaders at the White House to discuss a coronavirus relief package.

In March 2020, the state legislature granted Cuomo emergency powers to address the coronavirus pandemic, effectively allowing the governor to change any local or state law with the stroke of a pen. 

As of last week, Cuomo has issued at least 94 executive orders, according to WGRZ.

Examples include limiting gatherings in public and private spaces, closing or reopening businesses, mask mandates and expanding hospital capacity.

There were also executives orders indirectly related to the pandemic, such as making people at a bar also order food, postponing church elections, making a second wedding license available for free if the first one expired, and waiving performance reviews for public school teachers. 

The executive powers are set to expire on April 30, but the New York State Legislature has the power to revoke these powers before the deadline. 

If so, it means Cuomo would no longer have the power to suspend existing statutes or effectively create new laws, all of which would now be done by the Legislature.

A simple majority is needed in both houses, the Assembly and the Senate, for the powers to be rescinded. 

There are 150 members in the Assembly so a simple majority would entail 76 members voting to rescind or 75 members and a tie-breaking casting vote by the Lieutenant Governor.

In the Senate, there are 63 members so there would need to be 32 Senators voting to rescind a simple majority. 

On Friday, Majority Leader Sen Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, released a statement slamming Cuomo and stated that the ‘next steps’ would be discussed at a conference.

‘Crucial information should never be withheld from entities that are empowered to pursue oversight,’ Stewart-Cousins wrote.

‘This was always about getting the truth and allowing information to guide our response. That is why we had multiple hearings and another hearing scheduled for this month. And why we requested this information in the first place.

‘Politics should not be part of this tragic pandemic and our response to it must be led by policy, not politics. As always, we will be discussing next steps at a conference.’ 

In a statement on Friday, DeRosa said the administration had been transparent and that she told state legislators their request for information on nursing home COVID-19 deaths was set aside to deal with federal request.

‘We informed the houses of this at the time. We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout,’ she said.

‘As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. 

‘But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.’

A March 25 directive from Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept thousands of COVID-positive patients when they were discharged from hospital – potentially spreading sickness and death among residents, a charge the state disputes. 

DeRosa’s shocking admission came shortly before the Associated Press revealed that more than 9,000 patients were sent back to nursing homes – a figure 40 percent higher than official data. 

Neither Cuomo nor his office have issued a statement acknowledging DeRosa’s bombshell admission, despite calls from local lawmakers for a public apology. 

Meanwhile calls continue to mount to prosecute Cuomo. 

Republican New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said Thursday’s revelations of a cover up showed a ‘stunning and criminal abuse of power’, and led demands for prosecution.  

New York Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat from Queens who was on the Thursday call, whose uncle died in a nursing home in April and is presumed to have had COVID-19,  said DeRosa’s apology was unsatisfying.

‘It’s not enough how contrite they are with us,’ he told the Post.

‘They need to show that to the public and the families — and they haven’t done that.’ 

In the call on Thursday, DeRosa admitted they deliberately hid the data from state legislators, after the Trump administration began asking questions.

The Department of Justice announced it had opened an investigation on August 26 into ‘governors of states that issued orders which may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents’.   

She said state Democrats asked for the data in August, ‘right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football.’

DeRosa added: ‘He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes.’ 

‘He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.’ 

Trump, also, she said, ‘directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.’

‘And basically, we froze. 

‘Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation. 

‘That played a very large role into this.’ 

DeRosa then asked for ‘a little bit of appreciation of the context’.

She then offered the Democrat lawmakers an apology for the ‘political position’ that Cuomo’s order put them in.

She told the officials: ‘We do apologize. I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.’  

Rich Azzopardi, a senior Cuomo advisor, desperately tried to limit the damage caused by DeRosa Thursday night.

He tweeted: ‘We explained that the Trump administration was in the midst of a politically motivated effort to blame Democratic states for COVID deaths, and that we were cooperating with federal document productions – and that was the priority. And now that it is over, we can address the state Legislature.’  

Cuomo’s March order forced nursing homes to readmit COVID-positive patients due to concerns about space in hospitals – despite fears of how the virus would spread among the vulnerable elderly. 

‘No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to [a nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,’ the ruling stated. 

‘[Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.’ 

He later reversed the ruling, on May 10, barring nursing homes from accepting COVID-19 patients without a negative test first.

On Thursday, AP revealed that 9,056 recovering patients were sent to hundreds of nursing homes under Cuomo’s directive – more than 40% higher than what the state health department previously released.

State health officials contend that asymptomatic nursing home employees, not recovering COVID-19 patients, were the driving factor in nursing home outbreaks. 

Critics insist that his policy cost thousands of lives. 

Despite criticism of his handling of the pandemic, Cuomo released a book detailing what he claims are his victories, and also won an Emmy for his daily TV briefings. 

Cuomo has been repeatedly asked for more details about the nursing home scandal for months, but has dodged the questions.  

The governor was blasted in January after responding to the controversy by asking ‘who cares’ where the residents died, in ill-advised comments that enraged grieving relatives.

He said it did not matter if a COVID death was counted in a nursing home or hospital.  

‘Whether a person died in a hospital or died in a nursing home, it’s…people died.  People died,’ he said.

”I was in a hospital I got transferred to a nursing home,” he continued.

‘New York is under the national average for nursing home deaths.

‘But who cares 33 [died in a hospital], 28 [died in a nursing home.] They died.’    

He was immediately slammed as ‘disgusting’, ‘callous’ and ‘gutless’ by people whose loved ones died in nursing homes.   

On February 3, a New York state Supreme Court judge, Justice Kimberly O’Connor, ruled that Cuomo had five business days to respond to a FOIL request to release data on COVID-19 in nursing homes. 

The lawsuit was filed by Senator Jim Tedisco and the Empire Center for Public Policy, and O’Connor in her ruling was critical of the Department of Health for stalling on reporting nursing home data for several months. 

The latest revelations that the Cuomo administration hid the damning data was met with outrage from politicians of both parties, as well as relatives of nursing home COVID victims.  

Elsie Stefanik, a Republican representing New York in the House, said Cuomo must be ‘prosecuted immediately’.

‘This bombshell admission of a cover-up and the remarks by the Secretary to the Governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power,’ she said.  

Stefanik added: ‘I have said from the beginning that this is more than a nursing home scandal, this is a massive corruption and coverup scandal at the highest level of New York State Government implicating the Governor, the Secretary to the Governor, the New York State Health Commissioner and the Governor’s staff. 

‘The families who lost loved ones, New Yorkers, and all Americans deserve accountability from the U.S. Department of Justice that will be independent and not swayed by the desperate political pressure from Governor Cuomo.’

NY Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Republican, tweeted: ‘Governor Cuomo and his administration must be investigated from top to bottom and he must be stripped of his emergency powers. Justice needs to be brought for the grieving families who have been ignored to protect Governor Cuomo and his Democrat allies in the Legislature.’

Democrats also turned on the governor. Jumaane Williams, the Public Advocate for New York City, tweeted: ‘To continual defenders of @NYGovCuomo, how is this ok? How is it not #Trump like? 

‘And when FORCED into admission, the most you get is a sorry we got caught…and not even directly from him or to the families. All while asking NYers to trust your decisions.’ 

Another Democrat, state senator Alessandra Biaggi, tweeted: ‘You’re only sorry that you all got caught. Because of your decisions, thousands of people died who did not have to die. We’re not ‘offended’, Melissa, we’re furious – with extremely good reason.’

Janice Dean, a senior meteorologist for Fox News, who lost her mother-in-law  and father-in-law in a New York nursing home, slammed the governor over the report.

‘There has to be some accountability, some investigation, one that is bipartisan, one that involves subpoena and tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth,’ she told DailyMail.com. 

‘We don’t have the whole scope of how bad it is.

‘If it is proven this governor has been corrupt and this criminal, he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.’

Dean said she believes Cuomo should resign but not until he faces consequences.

‘I think he should resign but I don’t want him to get off easy.’ 

Both of Dean’s in-laws, Michael and Dolores Newman, passed away in a nursing home during the pandemic.

She said she hopes an investigation will bring justice to her on-laws and the countless others who lost loved ones.

‘Maybe, we needs an investigation and it needs to be by the highest courts in the land,’ she said.

‘It’s not going to bring my relatives back, but I hope justice prevails.

‘I’m trying to seek some kind of justice for them and thousands of other families so this doesn’t happen again’ 

GOP congresswoman and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene was also quick to comment, blasting: ‘Andrew Cuomo has blood on his hands. The Cuomo Coverup led to needless deaths of New Yorkers everyone knew were at risk. And Fredo and CNN helped him hide it while laughing about it!’

Steve Scalise, the Republican House whip, tweeted: ‘There it is. Cuomo’s aide just admitted to covering up nursing home data so federal prosecutors couldn’t find it. Time for federal investigations. Time for prosecutions. Time for JUSTICE.’

He added: ‘The more the truth comes out, the worse it gets for Cuomo.’ 

Matt Vespa, a senior editor at TownHall.com, called for an urgent investigation.

‘With Biden now president, Cuomo’s people admit what many have already suspected: they intentionally hid the real COVID death toll from nursing homes in a massive cover-up that warrants a federal investigation,’ he said.

‘Biden DOJ should look into this…if they care about law and order.’