Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland should be questioned about his plans for continuing the federal investigation into how New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration handled data on coronavirus-related nursing home deaths, according to Rep. Lee Zeldin.
"Hopefully there's going to be a smooth transition where we don't see an investigation stopped because of any type of political influence," the New York Republican said on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria" Thursday. "When Merrik Garland is coming up for his confirmation hearings in the Senate, this is a great example to use to ensure and secret the commitment that the Justice Department is going to remain independent, free of any type of political influence."
The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn and the FBI are in the preliminary stages of investigating whether the Cuomo administration intentionally withheld nursing home data from the public, a claim the governor's office denies.
There are also many Democrats who serve in the New York state legislature who are talking about stripping Cuomo's emergency powers, said Zeldin, as "they're upset that they're getting played."
Zeldin added that part of the growing attacks on the governor come after he's written "self-congratulatory books" to praise his own leadership because of his attitude on the nursing home deaths and his aide's comments that the numbers had been underreported.
"For the state legislature, for many of the Democrats, you could see that there's a lack of accountability, (and it) seems like there's a lack of respect from the governor, towards the state legislature," said Zeldin. "So why continue to give the governor all of these emergency powers if there's no accountability?"
Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee, to which Zeldin belongs, will hold a hearing Thursday concerning the GameStop stock controversy. He said he hopes the hearing will be a true fact-finding mission, not a "motivation not to let any good crisis go to waste" that will allow Democrats to create more regulation and taxes.
"We need to fight for the little guy and get answers about whether anything nefarious took place," said Zeldin.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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