Scandal-plagued New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will continue leading the White House's weekly pandemic calls despite multiple investigations into his conduct, including an allegedly deadly nursing home mandate, a reported cover-up, and at least 7 accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct.
Cuomo, a Democrat, currently heads the White House weekly COVID-19 calls and White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday he will remain the point man on those calls as chairman of the National Governors Association.
"We will continue to work with a range of governors – including Governor Cuomo, who I would expect to join the call [Tuesday]," Psaki said during Monday's press briefing.
Former Vice President Mike Pence had lead then-President Donald Trump's White House coronavirus task force and was the leader of the COVID-19 response calls with U.S. state governors at that time.
The White House said it is taking no preemptive action to remove Cuomo from his leading role.
"It would be up to the NGA to determine if they were to make a change on that front," Psaki said. "It's also up to the legislature and others in New York to determine if he still has the confidence of the people in the state."
Psaki did call the sexual harassment and misconduct allegations against Cuomo "troubling" and added President Joe Biden – who has also been accused of sexual misconduct – finds them "hard to read."
"Like everyone who continues to read stories, new developments seem to happen every day; we find them troubling; the President finds them troubling, hard to read," Psaki told reporters. "And every woman who steps forward needs to be treated with dignity and respect. The New York attorney general is pursuing, of course, an independent investigation against Gov. Cuomo, and that is appropriate, and the president believes that's appropriate, as does the vice president.
"The investigation needs to be both quick and thorough, consistent with how serious these allegations are. And of course, our objective, though, here continues to be to get the COVID pandemic under control, and we don't want the people of New York or any state to be impacted negatively."
While the White House said it is allowing the investigations to guide their decisions, many prominent Democrats have already called for Cuomo to resign. They include: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
Also, the Democrat-led New York state legislature has launched an impeachment investigation related to the allegations and reported cover-up of nursing home deaths after Cuomo mandated long-term care facilities take in COVID-19 positive patients at the start of the pandemic.
The mandate is claimed to be responsible for the deaths of 15,000 New York seniors. A senior aide to Cuomo had reportedly admitted the administration underreported and withheld death totals in order to avoid scrutiny from the Trump administration's Justice Department.
Cuomo has denied most of the salacious allegations outright, apologizing for what he called misinterpreted friendliness, and vehemently refusing to step down.
"I was not elected by the politicians; I was elected by the people," Cuomo said last week.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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