ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Monday asked former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo two questions about the “nursing home crisis” under his administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting Cuomo to rant for over five minutes without expressing remorse.
Cuomo, who recently announced his candidacy for New York City mayor, faced accusations of underreporting the number of deaths in state nursing homes following his administration’s directive that allowed thousands of COVID-19-positive patients into the facilities. When Smith, on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” asked Cuomo about his responsibility in the crisis and the allegations of undercounting, the former governor did not acknowledge any guilt.
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“How much culpability and blame do you believe you deserved and what role do you believe that ultimately played in you ultimately departing from the governor’s position for the state of New York?” Smith asked
Cuomo responded by ranting for over four minutes, starting by discussing the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.
“No one really knew what to do. I had the best health officials on the globe, Stephen, working with us because New York had COVID first and worst, right? Because the planes were bringing it from Europe to New York for months and nobody knew,” he said. “So I had the best health officials that you could get, but nobody really knew what to do. And the worst manifestation of COVID was in the nursing homes. And this was a horrific situation. And God forbid anyone should ever have to go through this again.”
“In the nursing homes, we had to close visitation because you were afraid more people would bring in the virus so you couldn’t visit loved ones. And you had many people dying in nursing homes because, obviously, COVID preyed on the weak and the immune-compromised and that was nursing homes,” he continued. “So you had people dying in nursing homes — they couldn’t see their family even though they were at the end of their life. The families couldn’t say goodbye. I mean, it was just as painful a human situation that you could imagine.”
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Cuomo then said the situation “traumatized” him as well as numerous others. He asserted that health officials, federal officials and state officials were doing their “best” with what they knew at the time, but that “they just didn’t have enough knowledge.”
The former governor accused politicians of politicizing the crisis due to it taking place in 2020, an election year. He said none of the lawsuits and investigations into the situation found any wrongdoing.
“At the end of the day, everybody comes to the same basic conclusion, which is everyone did what they could and the health officials did what they thought was right at the right time,” he said. “But many people died in nursing homes.”
Cuomo also touted the death rate in New York nursing homes.
“The bottom bottom line for the state of New York — and to cut through all the politics — they then count how many people died in nursing homes per 100,” he said. “So it’s apples and apples — big state, small state. For every 100 people in nursing homes, how many died? The state of New York is number 38, which means only 12 states had a lower rate of death than New York. ”
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“And that is saying something, Stephen, because, you know, we had it first, and other states had months to prepare. It just fell out of the sky for New Yorkers. But those are federal numbers,” he continued. “The rate of death in nursing homes — we ranked number 38. I would have liked to be number 50. But 38 — only 12 states had a lower rate of death. I think that says New York officials, health officials, not only did their job but did it well.”
Issues pertaining to the altering of nursing home data during the pandemic first arose in May 2020 when the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that Cuomo’s office manipulated data to enhance the governor’s image.
“But respectfully, sir, they seem to be coming at you because they used the word ‘undercounted.’ And what they said was that it was undercounted because, at that particular moment in time, your star had ascended to another level … And that’s where the word ‘politicized’ or ‘politicization’ came into play because they felt that, for political purposes, you had undercounted,” Smith said. “And to that, as you reflect on that, was that a mistake in any way? Was there anything that you could look back on and say, ‘Maybe I should have done something different to make sure they couldn’t come at me with those accusations?’”
Cuomo responded with another rant lasting over 90 seconds. He again touted his state’s nursing home death rate and the only issue he said he should have handled differently was communication.
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“What could I have done differently in retrospect? When it became political, Stephen, then I partially resented the politicization of it, if you will,” he said. “We were doing everything we could at that time to save lives and now you want to play politics? And you want to start with the Department of Justice investigation in the middle of this crisis?”
“I did resent the injection of politics. And I was probably not as communicative as I should have been because I thought it was political,” he continued. “And I resented, as I said, that politics was entering what was the most significant crisis of a generation. So, I would say that.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
