October 24th 2022
by WRGB Staff
EAST GREENBUSH, NY (WRGB) — Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik appearing in Rensselaer County Monday to make a big announcement.
She is pledging a congressional investigation into New York’s nursing home deaths during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MORE: AP count: Over 4,300 virus patients sent to NY nursing homes
Rep. Stefanik says this investigation would look into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 2020 order that saw COVID-19 positive residents readmitted to nursing homes. That order has been blamed for thousands of deaths. Stefanik appeared outside the county’s Van Rensselaer Manor nursing home in East Greenbush.
County executive Steve McLaughlin, who is also a Republican, stood beside her.
Back when the March 2020 order was in effect, he refused to comply and even refused to let state health inspectors in if they didn’t prove they had tested negative for the virus.
McLaughlin said,
“I think this was ground zero of the resistance of what I defined as pure madness.. We did not let any patients into this nursing home.”
Stefanik said,
“Make no mistake there must be accountability and there must be transparency and answers… That did not abide by CMS guidance.”
Stefanik says if Republicans take the majority in Congress after the midterms, they would have subpoena power — so they could compel Cuomo to testify.
MORE: Rep. Stefanik ‘honored to live rent free in his head,’ blasts Cuomo on nursing homes
We reached out to the former governor’s spokesman tonight.
He says — the DOJ and Manhattan DA already investigated the march directive – and nothing came of it.
He also calls “weaponizing people’s pain for the sake of scoring political points” ghoulish.
Read the full WRGB here.
