Disgraced former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to appear before a panel of House lawmakers and discuss his administration’s controversial handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York nursing homes, the chairman of the committee said Friday.
“Governor Cuomo will be appearing before our select Subcommittee on the Pandemic on June 11,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told CNN host Jake Tapper.
“This will be a transcribed interview at 10 a.m.,” Wenstrup added, indicating that his testimony will take place behind closed doors.
Cuomo’s agreement to testify comes more than a month after the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic issued a subpoena for his testimony.
The three-term Democrat resigned in 2021 amid a wave of scandals, including the alleged cover-up of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes.
The ex-gov denies that his administration’s March 2020 policy requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19-positive patients led to additional deaths.
Nearly two years later, New York’s comptroller found that Cuomo had “misled the public” in undercounting such deaths by more than 50%.
Cuomo’s order potentially caused 1,000 additional nursing home deaths, according to an analysis by The Empire Center.
Manhasset, New York, on May 19, 2020. Dennis A. Clark
“I’m trying to learn why he would do something like this,” Wenstrup told Tapper. “As a doctor who has treated infections, it goes against all medical common sense to take someone who was highly contagious and put them amongst the most vulnerable.”
Wenstrup noted that his committee first reached out to Cuomo about nine months ago, but the former governor “ignored on many of our requests.”
A spokesman for the former governor disputed Wenstrupt’s claim.
“There’s no news here, we agreed to do this months ago,” Cuomo rep Rich Azzopardi said in a statement.
“This is pure politics and simple fact remains that this issue has been reviewed three times by the Department of Justice under Trump and Biden, as well as Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney who found no there there,” he added. “Any real review would focus on the 10 other states with similar policies, red and blue alike.”
The House panel also announced this week that Dr. Anthony Fauci has agreed to testify on the origins and government response to the pandemic.
His testimony is slated for June 3.