A Statement From NYS Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt

Governor Cuomo’s failure to apologize this afternoon was a shocking slap in the face to the New Yorkers who have lost loved ones to COVID-19. His inability to take blame for the hurt inflicted on our families by his administration’s relentless disinformation campaign is wrong on every level.

The Governor seems incapable of comprehending that it was his Administration at fault, and nobody else. He continues to shift the blame anywhere but upon himself and his top officials.

The Governor’s major excuse for the failure of his Administration to provide accurate, timely information to the public was, “We were busy.” This is a pathetic response coming from a man who had the time to publish and promote a book about his pandemic response while New Yorkers clamored for the truth.

To be clear, the Senate Republicans were never notified by the Governor’s Administration regarding the Department of Justice request. People want the truth and the only way that can be provided is through investigations by the Department of Justice and the Attorney General. We know this even more now because Senate Democrats have shown they were willing partners in the lies and the coverup. For the thousands of New Yorkers who lost a cherished loved one in a nursing home, for those who can’t get a vaccine because of this governor’s tight fisted yet incompetent administration of vaccines, and for the professionals who felt compelled to resign from a Department of Health driven not by science but by politics, justice must be served.

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