#Top Cuomo aide in spat with Rep. Stefanik over nursing home deaths

A top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo is getting hammered on Twitter after engaging in snarky social media attacks against critics of the administration’s controversial nursing home policy during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo senior adviser Richard Azzopardi struck back on Twitter Tuesday after upstate Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik and others scoffed at a state Health Department report that absolved the administration of any responsibility for more than 6,000 presumed or confirmed deaths of nursing home residents from COVID-19.

The report concluded that infected staffers and visiting family members were primarily responsible for spreading the killer bug to nursing home residents during the early peak of the pandemic in New York — not the state’s controversial March 25 directive requiring nursing homes to admit or readmit recovering COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals.

“Everyone knows this is a joke & not a real report or investigation. There needs to be an independent investigation into NY’s fatal nursing home policy,” Stefanik, an ally of President Trump, first tweeted Monday.

“So far, Cuomo has blamed the nursing home staff, seniors, their loved ones, CMS, the President, Congress, & the @nypost !”

Azzopardi shot back Tuesday morning with his own tweet: “The report was peer reviewed by experts at Mount Sinai and Northwell Health, but speaking of jokes did you hear the one about the Congress member who threw away all her credibility to hitch her wagon to the Trump train & then the president couldn’t even remember her name.”

Stefanik responded with her own zinger.

“It’s a true joy every day to represent a district where the people understand that Cuomo & his sycophant servants have torpedoed Upstate. Whether it’s nursing homes, population loss, economic stagnation, anti-police laws, county mandates, gun grabs, taxes, bail reform, etc.,” she tweeted.

GOP Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin chimed in, “You hitched your wagon to a guy that enforced a policy that killed over 6,500 senior citizens.”

Other folks on Twitter pointed out that both Mt. Sinai hospital and Northwell Health — the state’s largest medical provider — are regulated by the state and not disinterested observers given that some of their COVID-19 patients were discharged to nursing homes under state policy.

The spat is not just a partisan one between Democrat Cuomo and GOP lawmakers.

Queens Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, one of the fiercest critics of Team Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes, put out his own detailed statement Tuesday claiming the state report’s findings were self-serving.

“What the Department of Health released is nothing more than an industry-backed, corporatist sham of a report designed to scapegoat workers — the front-line heroes of this crisis — for fatal policies created by this administration and its lobbyists,” Kim said.

“My office did not wait until thousands of people died to investigate the nursing home crisis. With only basic due diligence, we uncovered malfeasance and misconduct on a such a scale that an independent investigation by a global entity may be required. This faulty and flaw-ridden report cannot be taken seriously. We will soon be releasing a far more comprehensive, transparent, and honest look at what really happened.”

Azzopardi on Monday had already addressed Kim’s prior criticism, citing the backing of hospital officials.

“Once again, Ron Kim doesn’t know what he’s talking about and apparently doesn’t care about embarrassing himself. ‎The DOH report was peer reviewed by experts at Mount Sinai and Northwell Health and it’s disturbing that this politician is refusing to believe facts, science and dates on a calendar.”