On Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to answer if her boss, President Joe Biden, still believed Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was “the gold standard for leadership during the pandemic,” a comment the president made earlier in 2020.
The question came from ABC News’ “This Week” with Jon Karl.
Psaki’s response has drawn ridicule from conservative commentators, as Cuomo draws fire even from far-left figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other New York Democrats.
Biden's Press Secretary Jen Psaki refuses to condemn NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home deaths cover-uphttps://t.co/GkuvIZ3Cm3 pic.twitter.com/HwMLTOx358
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 21, 2021
ABC News: “Does President Biden Still Consider Andrew Cuomo The Gold Standard?”
Cuomo is under heavy fire at the moment for implementing a policy early in the COVID-19 pandemic that forced nursing homes to accept people who had tested positive for coronavirus.
It has since been alleged that the governor and his administration tried to hide data that indicated the actual number of nursing home deaths.
ABC host Karl played a video of then-presidential candidate Biden calling Cuomo’s leadership “sort of the gold standard.”
“Now we’ve seen that Governor Cuomo has allegedly undercounted nursing home deaths, misled legislators in New York,” Karl said to Psaki.
“So does President Biden still consider Andrew Cuomo the gold standard when it comes to leadership on the pandemic?”
Everything the left accused Trump of…
– Bullying
– Intimidation
– Lying
– Deception
– Poor Leadership
– Killing Americans
– Incompetence…turns out to be everything #AndrewCuomo actually is.
And Joe Biden thinks Cuomo is the “gold standard”. #CuomoCoverup #CuomosGottaGo pic.twitter.com/RYMbibjepo
— Dave Q. 🇺🇸 (@DQuesada) February 22, 2021
Psaki Refuses To Answer
Psaki replied, “Well, Jon, we work with Governor Cuomo just like we work with governors across the country.”
“He’s also chair of the NGA, so he plays an important role in ensuring that we’re coordinating closely and getting assistance out to people of his state and to states across the country,” Psaki added. “And we’ll continue to do that.”
“Of course, there will be a process,” she continued. “Investigations, we’ll leave that to others to determine … how that path is going to move as we look forward.”
She basically dodged Karl’s question.
Karl pressed on, “But Jen, my question was, does President Biden still believe that Andrew Cuomo represents the gold standard on leadership during this pandemic? Just a yes or no.”
A “yes or a no” was not forthcoming.
Asked about Biden once calling Gov. Cuomo’s pandemic response the “gold standard,” Jen Psaki tells Jon Karl the president is focused on his response and will leave investigations to the appropriate authorities. “I’m not here to give new labels or names,” she says.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 21, 2021
“Jon, the president, well, it doesn’t always have to be a yes or no answer, Jon,” Psaki said. “I think the president is focused on his goal, his objectives as president of the United States.”
Psaki insisted that she’s “not here to give new labels or names from the president,” but “to communicate with you about what our focuses are and what his objectives are as president.”