ALBANY, N.Y. (NewsNation Now) — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo allegedly gave family members, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, special access to state-administered COVID-19 tests in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to reports by The Washington Post Wednesday.
Cuomo, a Democrat, faces bipartisan calls to resign over accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct from at least eight women and disclosures that his administration under-reported nursing home deaths from the pandemic.
The 63-year-old third-term governor has repeatedly denied the allegations and said he would not resign despite an ongoing impeachment probe. Cuomo asked New Yorkers to await the results of an investigation headed by state Attorney General Letitia James.
The newspaper, which cited three unnamed people with knowledge of the situation, reported that a top state doctor made house calls to some of the governor’s family members or close associates, including his brother, to administer the tests. Chris Cuomo tested positive for COVID-19 early in the pandemic.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
“We should avoid insincere efforts to rewrite the past. In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people testing,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said in a statement emailed to Reuters in response to the Post article.
Those efforts included “in some instances going to people’s homes – and door to door in places like New Rochelle – to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases and prevent additional ones,” the statement added. New Rochelle was an early epicenter of the virus.
Among those assisted, “were members of the general public, including legislators, reporters, state workers and their families who feared they had contracted the virus and had the capability to further spread it,” Azzopardi said.
CNN said in a statement emailed to Reuters: “We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees.”
“However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris (Cuomo) was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would,” the network said.
Chris Cuomo conducted a series of interviews – which some critics called gentle or even comical – on CNN with his older brother during the pandemic.
After the nursing home and sexual misconduct scandals broke, the network said its conflict-of-interest policy meant that Chris Cuomo could not report on the governor.
Chris Cuomo tweeted on Monday that he was on vacation. On Tuesday, his television show’s official Twitter handle said he would be back next week.
“Given the breadth and seriousness of the issues under investigation, we expect that the timing will be in terms of months rather than weeks,” Charles Lavine, chair of the state Assembly’s judiciary committee said Tuesday.
Former staffers have accused Cuomo of workplace harassment, including demeaning them with pet nicknames or making objectifying remarks about their appearance, subjecting them to unwanted kisses and touches or asking them about their sex lives. Cuomo also faces an allegation that he groped a female staff member under her shirt after summoning her to the governor’s mansion in Albany late last year.
The three-term governor has rejected calls for his resignation from fellow Democrats, including New York’s two U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
President Joe Biden said last week that Cuomo should resign if the state attorney general’s investigation confirms the sexual harassment allegations against him.
Biden made the remarks in an interview with ABC News. When asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos if the investigation confirms the claims of the women, should Cuomo resign, Biden said “yes,” adding, “I think he’d probably end up being prosecuted, too.”