Fact check: Andrew Cuomo faces impeachment calls over mishandling of nursing home data

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The claim: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing calls for impeachment

It has been almost a year since the coronavirus pandemic began ravaging the U.S. and elsewhere. In that year, the virus has infected at least 28 million Americans and killed nearly 500,000 others.

When the virus first landed in the U.S., the state of New York, particularly New York City was hit the hardest.

During this time, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's daily coronavirus briefings made him a household name across the country while the state worked to get the virus under control.

Praise for Cuomo's handling of the coronavirus went so far that in November he received the International Emmy Founders Award for his 111 briefings.

However, recently, Cuomo and his administration have been under fire for misreporting, or undercounting, coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.

One viral Instagram video, from the political news account polialertcom shows a news clip from CNN about calls for Cuomo's impeachment.

The caption reads, "New York Gov. #AndrewCuomo is facing calls for impeachment after a top aide alleged the administration delayed the release of data on Covid-19 deaths of long-term care facility residents because of concerns about a potential federal investigation."

More: Fact check: Claim that California did not verify signatures on mail-in ballots is false

Controversy surrounding nursing home data

Despite the initial praise for his handling of COVID-19, there has been increasing criticism, from both Democrats and Republicans, directed at Cuomo and his team's handling of data after an aide admitted to withholding nursing home data.

Initially, the administration had only released data about the number of nursing home residents who had died from the coronavirus while in the homes. State lawmakers also were seeking data that showed the number of residents who died in hospitals.

The comments about withholding data were made by Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa in a private Zoom call with Democratic lawmakers. Cuomo's administration has since released a partial transcript of the call.

"Basically, we froze because then we were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice or what we give to you guys and what we start saying was going to be used against us and we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation," DeRosa said.

DeRosa later said in a statement that she was trying to explain that when the administration received the federal inquiry, it had to temporarily set aside that of the legislature.

The comments only further agitated the bipartisan push for an investigation into the data and New York's handling of the coronavirus.

Those calls center around information that revealed the true coronavirus death toll for the state's nursing homes — 13,000 deaths versus the 8,700 that were originally reported. The death count reaches 15,000 when other facilities are included.

Following these developments, New York Republicans are calling for Cuomo's impeachment, while 14 state Democrats are asking to repeal his emergency powers, saying the expanded powers are "no longer appropriate."

"Andrew Cuomo must be prosecuted and Andrew Cuomo must be impeached if this evidence exists," New York GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said.

On Feb. 15, Cuomo conceded that the state should have released nursing home data sooner but was unable to do so, citing pandemic-related workload and a restrictive federal inquiry by Trump's Justice Department.

"More than anything it was just a capacity issue," Cuomo said of the delay in releasing the information. "Remember, at the same time we’re managing the pandemic; that’s what everyone was doing, and these things take time and the No. 1 priority was saving peoples’ lives."

While he conceded that the data should have been released sooner, Cuomo maintains that "there is nothing to investigate," adding that the administration has provided the information to the Justice Department.

Our ruling: True

The claim in the post has been rated TRUE. Some New York Republicans are calling for the impeachment of Gov. Andrew Cuomo following his administration's controversial handling of data regarding coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.

Our fact-check sources:

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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Andrew Cuomo faces impeachment calls over COVID-19 data

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