During a heated exchange at a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accused former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of “murdering people” in his handling of nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greene’s accusations stemmed from a directive issued by Cuomo on March 25, 2020, which allowed COVID-19 patients to be admitted to nursing homes. At the hearing, Greene reminded Cuomo that he had criticized then-President Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic while overseeing policies she claimed led to the deaths of nursing home residents.
“That was just a few days after you signed the directive to put COVID-19 patients into nursing homes on March 25th, which led to murdering people’s parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents,” Greene charged. “Yes, murdering them.”
Greene escalated her attack by challenging Cuomo to address those who lost loved ones in nursing homes during the pandemic. “Would you like to turn to the people here in this room today whose mothers died and their fathers died in these nursing homes and call them conspiracy theorists?” she asked, without waiting for a response. “Do you have the audacity to do that?”
In her intense questioning, Greene accused Cuomo of deflecting responsibility. “You blamed staff for spreading COVID in nursing homes,” she claimed before cutting off any opportunity for Cuomo to reply. “I didn’t ask you a question! I’m talking to you.”
Greene reiterated her belief that Cuomo’s decision to place COVID-19 patients in nursing homes amounted to “murder.” She forcefully declared, “You put them in nursing homes, which is murder! No, that’s murdering people!” She continued, “I’m saying that right now, and I’m also saying what a lot of people believe your actions did.”
During the pandemic, Cuomo faced significant criticism for his administration’s nursing home policies, although the extent of their impact remains a contentious issue. Greene, however, didn’t stop there, using the hearing to repeat her earlier claims that hospitals were not overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. “Yes, [hospital] waiting rooms get full,” she said but argued that the media exaggerated the severity of the situation.
Greene concluded by encouraging a return to “common sense,” stating, “We’re human, we can’t live forever, we’re going to catch all kinds of diseases and illnesses and other viruses, and we get hurt sometimes.”