Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s much-criticized report on nursing houses within the coronavirus pandemic turned a flashpoint throughout Thursday’s mayoral debate – and he nonetheless refused to apologize for deaths.
The still-controversial challenge arose after Cuomo admitted Thursday that he not solely noticed a controversial report on nursing residence COVID-19 deaths whereas he was governor, however might have had a hand in doctoring the doc.
Metropolis Comptroller Lander pounced on the difficulty by inviting Peter Arbeeny, whose father died from COVID-19 after a rehab stint at an area nursing residence, as a visitor.
“Andrew, this is Peter Arbeeny,” Lander stated to cheers from the group.
“His father Norman died because of your disastrous order to send people with COVID into nursing homes. Then, as you admitted this week, you hid the real death toll and lied to families about it for five years,” Lander continued.
“So tonight, will you finally apologize to Peter and other grieving New Yorkers?” he stated, pausing for applause. “Or will you just keep gaslighting them, with more blather about what a great job you claim you did?”
Cuomo tried to dodge by dinging Lander as supposedly being an inauthentic New Yorker.
“Maybe where you come from in St. Louis facts don’t matter, but here they do,” Cuomo stated.
He then apologized to Arbeeny, however pointedly didn’t provide a mea culpa for the rest.
“Mr. Arbeeny lost a father,” Cuomo stated. “I am very, very sorry for that.”
Cuomo famous Arbeeny sued the state in a case and contended authorized papers within the case discovered no COVID-positive particular person was despatched from a hospital to a nursing residence.
“So, it is factually impossible, Brad,” he stated, sarcastically emphasizing his opponent’s title, “that he got COVID, OK, from someone coming from a hospital.”
