Kayleigh McEnany Claims Cuomo Told Trump He’s Doing a ‘Fantastic Job,’ Then Rips Governor for Nursing Home Deaths

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in a new interview, went out of her way to note that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) praised President Donald Trump during his Wednesday visit to the White House. But in exchange for Cuomo’s compliments, McEnany refused to toss any bouquets back to the governor. Instead, the press secretary threw Cuomo completely under the bus.

Appearing on Fox’s America’s Newsroom, McEnany claimed that Cuomo raved about the president’s performance during their Oval Office sitdown.

“The governor of New York told the president in that meeting that he has been doing a fantastic job, and noted that,” McEnany said. “The federal government has been a great partner to New York in this.”

But McEnany did not say that the feeling was mutual. Instead, the press secretary blasted Cuomo for requiring New York nursing homes to take in coronavirus patients.

“I just want to be very clear that the governor of New York issued a mandate that all nursing homes were to take Covid patients,” McEnany said. “That is very different than what the CDC guidelines were, which said, ‘if and only if nursing homes can meet the stringent set of guidance should they consider taking Covid patients.’ I know there’s been some punting from the governor of New York to the CDC. Those were very different than the mandate that he issued, which was very clearly not the right decision to make.”

Cuomo’s administration has argued that New York was following federal guidance in determining its nursing home admission policy.

“I just want to reiterate once again that the policy that the Department of Health put out was in line directly with the March 13 directive put out by [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] that read, and I quote, ‘Nursing homes should admit any individuals from hospitals where Covid is present,'” said Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa during a May 23 briefing. “Not could, should … that is President Trump’s CMS and CDC.

Cuomo added, “New York followed the President’s agency’s guidance, so that de-politicizes it. What New York did was follow what the Republican administration said to do. So don’t criticize this state for following the President’s policy.”

But the March 13 memo cited by the Cuomo administration contains a quote which states that a nursing home “can accept a resident diagnosed with COVID-19 and still under Transmission-Based Precautions for COVID-19 as long as the facility can follow CDC guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions” — a passage which would seem to support McEnany’s interpretation.

As of May 26, at least 5,700 nursing home residents have died in New York due to the coronavirus — according to state data.

Watch above, via Fox News.