Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Tuesday the criminal referral sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday regarding Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's actions during the COVID-19 pandemic is all about accountability.
The referral sent by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which Comer chairs, accuses Cuomo of lying to Congress regarding his decision to create more space in hospitals by releasing recovering COVID-19 patients into nursing homes, which led to thousands of deaths. In October, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic sent a criminal referral to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, who did not act upon it.
"We led the investigation last Congress that proved that Gov. Cuomo covered up all of his mistakes," Comer told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "He misreported data. And remember, if you go back to COVID, he was the face of COVID. He wrote a book about how to successfully navigate COVID. And sometimes the cover up is worse than the crime in politics."
Cuomo is one of the top Democrat candidates in New York City's mayoral race. The election is Nov. 4.
"I don't think Gov. Cuomo intentionally did anything to lose lives," Comer said. "But when he found out people were dying because of his poor decisions, he covered it up. And that's a crime. And he needs to be held accountable."
Comer said it's frustrating because during Trump's first term, the mainstream media was "obsessed" with the pandemic. He said the media became less obsessed during the Biden administration, and is all but silent now that it has been determined that, among other things, COVID resulted from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, the Chinese destroyed evidence regarding the virus' origin, and that Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, made misleading statements.
Fauci received a pre-emptive pardon by Joe Biden for any crimes he might have committed or taken part in from Jan. 1, 2014, through Jan. 24, 2025, related to his time at the NIAID, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or the White House COVID-19 Response Team, or as Biden's chief medical adviser.
"No one has been held accountable to this date because of COVID," Comer said. "I hope that this criminal referral gets the ball rolling, and I hope we don't stop with Gov. Cuomo."
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