In recent days the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and his administration have come under hot water. Last week a phone conversation was leaked between Governor Cuomo’s top aide Melisa DeRosa and democratic lawmakers. This comes after the state had to admit to 15,000 nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
In the phone conference DeRosa said they “froze” over fears of the information being used against them. Back in August, President Trump’s Department Of Justice requested nursing home deaths from the Governor. Around the same time, State lawmakers also requested the same information. DeRosa said, “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 and what we start saying was going to be used against us, and we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”
Republican lawmakers are calling this a “cover up” and asking for Governor Cuomo’s resignation, along with Melisa DeRosa’s. On the flip side of that, progressive democratic leaders are saying it’s a lack of transparency.
Friday afternoon, DeRosa issued a news release, saying the administration needed to put the state lawmakers’ request on hold while they dealt with the Department of Justice first. In the news release DeRosa said, “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 also 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.”
It’s still unclear at this time why the Governors Administration couldn’t release this information at the same time as dealing with the Department Of Justice just like every other state did. When asked about this, DeRosa didn’t provide a direct answer.
Friday, 14 Democratic lawmakers issued a statement calling for a repeal of expanded authority Cuomo was given to address the pandemic. “While COVID-19 has tested the limits of our people and state — and, early during the pandemic, required the government to restructure decision making to render rapid, necessary public health judgments — it is clear that the expanded emergency powers granted to the Governor are no longer appropriate,” the senators said.
The public and media outlets have been asking for this information since early spring. After that in June, some lawmakers started asking for the same information.
