In a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) criticized President Donald Trump for giving off the “impression” that he is to blame for the large number of nursing home deaths amid the coronavirus pandemic in his state.
Cuomo, whose state’s policy was to send COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes, said Trump is creating “a narrative which is factually untrue.” He added that he finds such action by the president “reprehensible” and “cruel” to the families who lost loved ones.
“There was never a directive that said we will send COVID-positive people back to nursing homes,” Cuomo told MSNBC’s Willie Geist. “The directive which was modeled on the federal directive said you cannot discriminate. But the state law clearly says a nursing home can’t accept the person unless they can treat them.”
“One of the things I find reprehensible about it, Willie, is the president did create that impression, which is cruel,” he lamented. “It’s cruel. It’s cruel to say to the families who lost people in nursing homes, ‘Well, this could have been prevented by a different government policy.’ It makes their pain worse. It is not true. If you want to rewind all the tape, we should have been testing staff before they walked into a nursing home. That is true. And that’s back in March when we didn’t have any tests. We were told asymptomatic spread was impossible, that you had to have a symptom. So, the nursing home workers without symptoms were allowed in. That was bad information that we received. That’s how you would have really prevented it. But, for the president to create a narrative which is factually untrue, which causes pain, I understand his political reason. I mean, he needs some counterattack on COVID. But it’s just — it’s untrue, and it’s mean.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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