A New York assemblyman is calling for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s impeachment following a state report showing Cuomo used top state officials to help draft his book deal during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and was “not fully transparent” about nursing home deaths.
Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim, who lost his uncle to COVID-19 in a nursing home, slammed the disgraced former governor’s “criminal” actions Tuesday on “Fox & Friends” after the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee found Cuomo “utilized state resources and property, including work by Executive Chamber staff, to write, publish, and promote his book regarding his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.”
“At the peak of the pandemic the governor and his top aides were chasing down a $5.1 million book deal engaged in a race to the highest bidder while everyone was suffering,” Kim said. “Family advocates and I have been pushing for transparency and truth around the book deal because that’s where he was financially motivated to suppress the nursing home data for months.”
Investigators also found the Cuomo administration “was not fully transparent” with the American people about the number of nursing home residents who died as a result of COVID-19, and out-of-facility deaths were deliberately left out of a published state Department of Health report, which Cuomo had a significant hand in editing and revising after he faced criticism for his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.
“This is criminal public fraud when you are suppressing life and death data… If we had real-time truth and accountability and data, we could have legislated differently and saved thousands of people’s lives, and he took that right away from us,” Kim said.Video
The 60-page report also showed “overwhelming evidence” Cuomo “engaged in multiple instances of sexual harassment, including by creating a hostile work environment and engaging in sexual misconduct.”
Kim is pushing for impeachment to prevent Cuomo from ever seeking public office again.