Whether he wants to admit it, Governor Andrew Cuomo is now in the same place as Richard Nixon was in the final days of his presidential tenure in August 1974, struggling to keep his head afloat amid a sea of scandal that seems to grow higher by the day.
For Cuomo, it began with the nursing home death data controversy that the governor admitted to messing up from the start. But the sea really bubbled over on the heels of accusations made by three women in the past week — two former Cuomo aides, Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett; and Anna Ruch, a guest at a wedding reception Cuomo attended — that the governor made unwanted advances toward them.
Cuomo hasn’t addressed the media since Feb. 22.
Cuomo hasn’t addressed the media since Feb. 22.
Except for communications via press release, we’re all getting the silent treatment from a governor who had been a regular fixture on television for the better part of the year. Now he’s off camera stewing over scandal.
Where does Cuomo go from here, other than home?
The third report about Ruch’s account propelled prominent Democrats on Monday night to call for Cuomo’s resignation — and those calls figure to grow even louder from within the party.
The third report about Ruch’s account propelled prominent Democrats on Monday night to call for Cuomo’s resignation — and those calls figure to grow even louder from within the party.
Republicans are ready to dance on Cuomo’s political grave for many of the same sins (negligence and inappropriate behavior) their defeated former president committed, which they ignored the last four years.
The state budget deadline is in less than a month. New York is getting off the mat from the worst pandemic in a century that cost lives and tens billions of dollars. To state the obvious, this is a horrific time for New Yorkers to have an absentee, scandal-ridden chief executive running the show.
It’s checkmate for Cuomo. There are no more moves left for him to play.
Lawmakers will not work with him the same way as before; he has no leverage left. His odds of re-election to an unprecedented fourth term in 2022 are growing longer by the day.
Any gambit he may take for personal survival in office would only delay the important work to rebuild New York — and risk the Governor’s Mansion falling into the hands of a Trump-loving Republican who’ll cut New York City off from the support it requires from Albany.
For over 10 years, Cuomo has claimed to “work for the people.” Now he must get out of the way in order for that work to continue.
