Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be on the road to a political comeback. A Republican-led House panel on the pandemic could block the path. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will question the Democrat behind closed doors today on the decisions his administration made at the onset of 2020. Topping the list will be the controversial order that New York nursing homes welcome Covid-positive patients. “He’ll be arrogant, he’ll be his usual arrogant and smug self,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Staten Island Republican who sits on the panel, told Playbook. “A tough New Yorker — that’s what you can expect from him.” The meeting in Washington comes as Cuomo in recent weeks has again stoked the speculation he wants to run for office following his 2021 resignation amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. He’s spoken at Black churches to opine on the state of New York City, angering the Adams administration along the way. Team Cuomo has insisted the former governor simply is speaking up on matters he cares about — and would never challenge the mayor head-on in a Democratic primary. The Covid panel’s questioning of Cuomo today will have very little political upside for him as Republicans plan to jog voters’ memories of the controversies that erupted during his final year in office — including the origins of his lucrative book deal about the pandemic. “Appearing before the committee will remind New Yorkers how Andrew Cuomo made arbitrary decisions that destroyed livelihoods and businesses, created a tremendous amount of anxiety and emotional health issues with our youth and led to thousands of our senior citizens being killed in nursing homes,” Malliotakis said. Cuomo’s allies have long asserted the criticism of his pandemic policies has been politically motivated, fueled by both Republicans and left-leaning Democrats who never warmed to the centrist former governor. “Every member of this administration from the governor on down worked hard to save lives and keep people safe with constantly shifting facts from the ‘experts,’ personal protective equipment and medical equipment shortages and no national strategy,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in response to Malliotakis. “By the way, I wonder how her presidential candidate’s probation officer meeting went today.” Cuomo’s defense will likely center around his insistence that the state’s nursing home order aligned with federal guidance of that time. (Critics have contended the language from the state Department of Health was vaguely worded.) “The Department of Justice has looked at this issue three times, as have the Manhattan District Attorney, the Attorney General and the New York State Assembly, all determining that the actual facts and evidence did not support any claim of wrongdoing, and no MAGA farce of a congressional hearing is going to change that,” Azzopardi said. Republicans deny politics is at play. “We care about the people who lost lives,” said Rep. Marc Molinaro, who challenged Cuomo in the 2018 gubernatorial election. “Even if this was just a structure fire you would conduct a thorough after-action analysis.” — Nick Reisman HAPPY TUESDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
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