Fox’s Lawrence Jones Dings Andrew Cuomo on Covid Nursing Home Deaths: ‘Why Not Just Say I’m Sorry?’
Fox News host Lawrence Jones challenged New York City mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo to apologize to the families of victims in New York nursing homes who died as Covid-19 ravaged the state.
Appearing on Fox & Friends mere hours after the polls opened in the Big Apple, Cuomo pleaded his case for why voters should look to him — and not frontrunner Zohran Mamdani — to take the reins at Gracie Mansion.
But at one point, Jones grilled the former New York governor on his message to Republicans, with whom Cuomo’s political missteps are still fresh, especially the Covid nursing home scandal, in which Cuomo was accused of altering data and downplaying the amount of coronavirus deaths in care facilities.
“Why not just say, ‘I’m sorry,’ governor?” Jones demanded. “Why not just tell those victims’ families, ‘Look, it was a pandemic, we were going through a tough time, I was learning on the job certain things but I’m sorry they lost their loves ones,’ that would help a lot for those people.”
Cuomo contended that he had already done so.
“I have said that numerous times,” the former governor said. “I have said exactly that. New York had it first and worst, nobody knew what we were dealing with. I had the best health experts from around the globe giving us advice. We followed the best advice. We followed the federal guidance and people died in a horrific way. There were no visitors allowed into nursing homes, and I apologize for any family that lost a loved one during that time. It was on my watch and I understand how terrible it was.”
Read the exchange here:
LAWRENCE JONES: So Governor, I hear the point you are making, this audience is aware of Mamdani. We’ve been covering him for months and what he stands for. But what do you say to the Republicans that have concerns about how you handle the pandemic, no cash bail, and some of the things that took place in the nursing home, as well. Will you apologize to those voters? Because that’s something that can change this election. What do you say to those Republicans?
ANDREW CUOMO: Yeah, well, if you were in New York, we’ve had that conversation now for two years. And look, I was Democratic governor for 11 years. First of all, as governor, it’s different than New York City. New York State is about 50/50 Democrat/Republican. We’ve had Republican governors. I had a Republican senate. So I worked with Republicans all that time as governor. New York City is true blue. The state is mixed. And on the Covid situation, there have been numerous investigations of that. We’ve gone all through it, we followed all the federal rules, we did nothing wrong. Of course, we lost 80,000 people. The nation lost 1.2 million people. It was horrific, it was horrific. But everyone did the best that they could and I think people realize that.
JONES: Why not just say, “I’m sorry,” governor? Why not just tell those victims’ families, “Look, it was a pandemic, we were going through a tough time, I was learning on the job certain things but I’m sorry they lost their loves ones,” that would help a lot for those people.
CUOMO: I have said that numerous times. I have said exactly that. New York had it first and worst, nobody knew what we were dealing with. I had the best health experts from around the globe giving us advice. We followed the best advice. We followed the federal guidance and people died in a horrific way. There were no visitors allowed into nursing homes, and I apologize for any family that lost a loved one during that time. It was on my watch and I understand how terrible it was.
As Cuomo was plotting his political comeback earlier this year, he suffered an early setback in the form of a DOJ probe over his testimony about nursing home deaths during the Covid pandemic. That investigation remains open.
Watch above via Fox News.
