Washington, D.C. – Andrew Cuomo drew national acclaim from Democrats and the media for his handling of the COVID crisis and drew national scorn from his constituents who were actually paying attention for policies that contributed to the deaths of thousands of elderly New Yorkers in nursing homes. His Administration even undercounted nursing home deaths by thousands.
Rather than hold leaders like Cuomo who utterly failed their constituents accountable, Chuck Schumer – under political pressure from his base in New York – sided with Cuomo and his administration for his handling of a crisis that resulted in thousands of deaths. And he forced Senate Democrats like Raphael Warnock, Mark Kelly, Maggie Hassan and Catherine Cortez Masto to go along with him.
The amendment from Senators Tim Scott, John Barrasso and James Lankford would have reduced funding to states – like New York – that have an active investigation into nursing homes for underreported deaths.
Statement from NRSC Spokesman T.W. Arrighi: “Senate Democrats are throwing in their hats with Andrew Cuomo to defend his policy of forcing nursing homes to accept COVID patients – a policy that led to deaths of thousands. Rather than support common-sense accountability for our elected officials, Senate Democrats were forced by Chuck Schumer to stand in solidarity with Cuomo and his disastrous policies. It’s clear that Democrats only support science when they think it works to their political advantage.”
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