Fellow Democrats not buying Andrew Cuomo's nursing home explanation: 'All of it is BS'

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s explanation for the controversy swirling around his handling of nursing homes in the early days of the pandemic did not sit well with fellow Democrats, many of whom took to social media to express outrage over his comments.

“No, @NYGovCuomo, you did not tell the 'entire' Senate or Assembly that there was a DOJ investigation, as the reason why you didn’t share the nursing home numbers,” said Democratic state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi on Twitter. “I found out about a DOJ investigation with the rest of NY’ers in the @nypost story Thursday night.”

Biaggi was responding to Cuomo’s claim on Monday that lawmakers were not given a true accounting of the nursing home death toll in the state because the administration was prioritizing a Department of Justice investigation, which he said he informed the New York State Assembly of.

Biaggi wasn’t the only lawmaker to take issue with Cuomo’s comments, with fellow Democratic state Sen. Julia Salazar calling the governor’s claim a "lie."

“If the Governor had actually informed the legislature months ago that his office was withholding the data they had on total nursing home deaths, there would’ve been no need for them to have a call with a group of legislators last week to inform them of this for the first time,” Salazar said on Twitter. “Governor can claim (as he’s done) that they withheld the data bc they thought it would be used against them by the DOJ(!). But claiming they informed the legislature is a lie on top of a lie. If he’d been honest in the first place, he may have had one bad news cycle. But now?”

Assemblyman Ron Kim was even blunter in his assessment of Cuomo’s explanation, saying “all of it is BS.”

“They could have given us the information back in May and June of last year. They chose not to,” Kim said.

He said that lawmakers may have been able to pass legislation ensuring tighter accountability at nursing homes had they known sooner, but they were never given that opportunity.

Kim also accused Cuomo of contradicting his top aide Melissa DeRosa, who told lawmakers in a private meeting last week that former President Donald Trump was making the nursing home issue a “political football,” which was the reason that the administration initially withheld the nursing home data.

“And basically, we froze,” DeRosa said.

“She talked about the potential that the information would be weaponized against them. DeRosa needs to be accountable for what she said,” Kim argued. “She implicated all of us in the cover-up.”

State Sen. John Liu said that the federal investigation was no excuse for “months and months of delays” in “misleading” or “withholding information that the public deserves to know.”

“The status quo can’t remain. There needs to be a revocation of some of the governor’s emergency powers,” Liu said during an interview with Fox News. “For months and months, we’ve been asking the executive branch, the governor’s office, for this information. It was information our constituents were demanding from the state government.”

Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.