AOC calls for ‘full investigation’ into Cuomo nursing home scandal
WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mounting nursing home crisis.
“I support our state’s return to co-equal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during COVID-19,” the Queens Democrat wrote in a statement Friday.
“Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes throughout the pandemic. Their loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from their elected leadership, and the Secretary to the Governor’s remarks warrant a full investigation.”
The Cuomo administration is under fire over its alleged cover-up of New York nursing home deaths, which a state attorney general probe found were 50 percent higher than state authorities said.
Last week, The Post revealed that Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, privately admitted to state lawmakers that the administration deliberately withheld data on COVID-19 nursing home deaths from federal prosecutors out of fear that the true numbers would “be used against us.”
The scandal has only grown in recent days after state Assemblyman Ron Kim, another Queens Democrat, accused Cuomo of threatening to “destroy” him unless he helped contain the fallout from the political maelstrom.
A dozen state Assembly Democrats announced their support for Kim and publicly backed legislation introduced by the Queens lawmaker seeking to strip Cuomo of his pandemic-related emergency powers.
A letter signed by nine state Democratic lawmakers also accused the besieged governor of obstruction of justice and demanded an investigation into his handling of the health crisis in nursing homes.
“As a co-equal branch of government, the Legislature is well within its rights to seek oversight of executive action. In fact, we have a duty to seek that oversight,” the lawmakers wrote Thursday.
The FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York have since opened an investigation into Cuomo’s handling of the crisis, sources told The Post on Wednesday.