New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's "days are finished" because of the scandal surrounding underreporting nursing home deaths in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis says.
"Thousands of New Yorkers have gone to my website to tell him to resign," the New York Republican said Tuesday on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "This is completely unacceptable. I believe it will be either by resignation, prosecution, or next year at the ballot box; Cuomo's days are finished."
She added that it's clear that Cuomo stonewalled about reports concerning people who died in the state's nursing homes, and the U.S. Department of Justice must continue with an inquiry into his decisions, particularly after a key aide admitted data was underreported because of a pending investigation.
"I was one of the first to call for an investigation on May 7," said Malliotakis. "I called for that investigation simply because it was clear that the governor mandated COVID positive patients into these nursing homes regardless of whether the nursing homes could accept them and care for them."
The facilities did not have the proper equipment to keep the staff or residents safe, and didn't provide adequate testing to identify and isolate patients, said Malliotakis.
"Even when there were alternatives set up like the U.S. Navy Comfort ship and the Javits Center, he continued to mandate that executive order," the congresswoman said.
And now, there are also Democrats joining the calls against Cuomo who want to "finally take back" Cuomo's emergency executive powers, said Malliotakis, adding that she's wanted that to happen for months.
She added, however, that Democrats covered for the governor for months.
"We had a hearing, I was a member of the state legislature at the time, on Aug. 3," said Malliotakis. "We had the commissioner of health there. He stonewalled, came for just a little while, and left. Didn't answer any of our questions."
Cuomo on Monday said that nursing home staffers, not patients returning from hospitals, likely brought COVID into the facilities, but Malliotakis said nobody will ever know if that is true because of the lack of testing that occurred.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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