NY Dems reprimand Gov. Cuomo, want to strip him of coronavirus emergency powers

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was reprimanded on Friday by a group of New York Democrats who are demanding that the governor be stripped of his emergency powers that he has exercised in response to the coronavirus pandemic in New York state. 

The reprimand came in a statement from 14 lawmakers who were acting following the news that Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, had admitted during a video conference call with Democratic leaders that the administration covered up the true extent of nursing home deaths in 2020 because they were concerned about a possible federal investigation by the Trump administration. 

The New York Post broke the story of DeRosa's confession to the group of Democratic lawmakers who were thought to be put in a difficult situation as result of the coverup. 

"While COVID-19 has tested the limits of our people and state — and, early during the pandemic, required the government to restructure decision making to render rapid, necessary public health judgments," the prepared statement from the 14 Democratic state senators said — "it is clear that the expanded emergency powers granted to the Governor are no longer appropriate." 

"While the executive's authority to issue directives is due to expire on April 30, we urge the Senate to advance and adopt a repeal as expeditiously as possible."

DeRosa attempted to clarify what she had said in a statement on Friday: "I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature's request to deal with the federal request first."

"We informed the houses of this at the time," DeRosa said in the statement posted on Twitter by a Cuomo spokesperson.