I originally wrote this piece on February 28, and awaited publication for this past week. Now, the time is now to ramp up the pressure on fellow legislators to hold Governor Cuomo accountable. He needs to go.
Andrew Cuomo, New York’s abuser-in-chief, is straddling a public relations tightrope. Stuck between two scandals, he hopes not to fall any further from Emmy-winning grace. The first — covering up how, where, and why elderly New Yorkers like my grandpa died in droves — sparked public outrage last month. The second — allegations of sexual assault from former aides — leaves Cuomo clamoring for an escape route that appears to narrow each day.
The only way to walk a tightrope is down the middle, and that’s exactly how Governor Cuomo intends to stay in power. He is a political animal capable of emerging from this self-inflicted assault, with a war chest of political centrists ready to leap to his defense (more appropriately, to sit quietly on the sidelines). He’ll need complacent accessories to his crimes more than ever these next few weeks, especially if he keeps recycling old public relations tricks under increasingly intense scrutiny.
Cuomo has never faced crises quite like this. For one, after Lindsey Boylan came forward, it appeared possible that more survivors would emerge (cue Charlotte Bennett, Anna Ruch, Kara Hinton and Ana Liss). He can’t brush off their accusations in T***pian fashion, attributing his unwanted advances to the tsunami of Cuomosexuals clamoring for a piece of the Governor. That’s certainly one subtle way to excuse himself (Bennett suggested high ratings empowered Cuomo in private), but it’s doubtful the Republican public relations playbook would translate so well across the aisle and in the news.
He effectively acknowledged as much during his first public apology, one that fell short of truly placing the burden for his predatory behavior on himself. Cuomo said, “I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.” This doesn’t say, “I creeped on younger women while splitting up with my long-term partner, and kissed my aide on the lips.”
The cringeworthy accusations are tough to avoid. Cuomo’s first preferred escape route? Setting up an ‘independent’ commission to investigate himself, only to have it die, slowly, amidst waves of crises that batter us senseless each week in the hope for vaccine nirvana. One can’t help but be in awe of Cuomo’s audacity, truly second to none after January 20th. Well, maybe to Stephen A. Smith. But it’s a close race in shamelessness no one should want to be in.
In first appointing Barbara Jones (a former federal judge with ties to his friends) to his committee, Cuomo tried to preempt State Attorney General Tish James, whose nursing homes investigation firmly thrust Cuomo’s abuses into the spotlight. Then, he pretended to double back, stating that James and another friend, Janet DiFiore, could lead the investigation. James had no interest in taking the bait, and said she’ll handle this alone.
Cuomo’s played this card before to a far greater degree of success. I’m not the first to remind readers of the Moreland Commission, Cuomo’s ‘independent’ committee to investigate the oxymoron that is ethics in Albany. Naturally, Cuomo suspended the commission when it started investigating his office. Fool me twice? Well, not me, but Cuomo wants support for this bureaucratic waiting game (that he surely intends to corrupt) to play out, despite the preponderance of evidence suggesting he’s an abusive, deceitful Governor.
The left, right, and de Blasio are in attack mode. How does Cuomo wiggle out of this politically alive?
He’s done the calculus. All Cuomo needs are powerful centrist enablers for this to work. His local political pawns, like Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and especially State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, had initially played along, resisting urges to ‘attack their own’. Since Hinton’s allegation, the tide in New York State’s Legislature began to turn. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins called for Cuomo’s resignation, while Heastie “questioned Cuomo’s ability to lead the State.” Cuomo’s response? “No way”.
It appears the momentum has certainly shifted. Why it took the fourth and fifth victims says more about State lawmakers than about the Governor.
Why is Cuomo sticking around? Besides his ego, part of the explanation is that Cuomo’s power also lies in Washington, where a president accused of misconduct just replaced a far more grotesque one in the White House. It explains why the first Pinned Tweet on Andrew Cuomo’s Twitter is the picture of him and President Biden embracing on stage.
President Biden and New York’s Governor — who met as recently as February 13 at the White House — are tight. Although they backed off previous characterizations of Cuomo as the ‘Gold Standard’, Biden’s team still appears to back Cuomo, judging him as too important an ally to abandon in the President’s first hundred days. For now, Biden is holding the line.
Representative Kathleen Rice broke rank, and was the first Democratic member of Congress to call for Cuomo’s resignation. Here’s the full list.
Rice and Cuomo have unfinished business: Rice was one of the three co-heads of Cuomo’s Moreland Commission during her stint as Nassau County District Attorney. CNN suggested that Cuomo needs to keep Rice as a “lone wolf”, and if other members of Congress fail to speak up, she could become the Democrats’ Liz Cheney. As far as Congress is concerned, this is still the case.
Perhaps the Senate is where the dominoes fall. Or, perhaps not. For a pulse on where centrists stand, look to fellow New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who timed her political ascent within the Me Too Movement. She spearheaded the investigation into one of the Senate Democrats’ ‘own’, former Senator Al Franken. There’s precedent here timely leadership, as well as falling back in line out of potentially tarnished political capital. Perhaps shirking responsibilities for criticizing this man’s gross behavior is so someone else should take the Me Too risk mantle instead. “Why should it just be up to a woman to hold a man accountable?”, they say.
Regardless, Gillibrand is New York’s third most-powerful politician, and it appears she is holding out for Cuomo. She and Senate Majority Leader Schumer both issued initial critical statements, but asserted that it’s not their business how the New York State Legislature conducts its business. Gillibrand even went so far as to say she didn’t read Boylan’s Medium post (it takes about 5 minutes).
Don’t look now, but if the ‘process’ plays out like Trump’s impeachment, you might just see this momentum to hold Cuomo accountable wither and die.
Washington may perceive Cuomo as too vital to lose, but why should New Yorkers? His sexual misconduct is but a manifestation of a governing style that can only be described as abusive. In Cuomo’s world, there is only one way: the highway crossing a bridge he named after his father. (That joke doesn’t get as old as A.J. Parkinson).
He will continue trying to hypnotize the public with flashes of empathy, timely deflections, and grandiose announcements. Behind the scenes, Cuomo’s making offers Ron Kim can’t refuse, preying on young staffers, and slashing public education budgets. These ‘new’ scandals are not the only impeachable offenses. Sure, there’s a new waiting hall in Midtown, but watch out for the MTA’s budget and deals for Cuomo’s real estate buddies. Keep gazing ever upward, and you’ll ignore the State trending downward.
Cuomo will continue to parade out high-level administrators and politicians attributing to his otherworldly competence, a myth that Cuomo specialist Ross Barkan annihilates in spectacular fashion. This governor won’t go down without a fight, and his ego simply won’t allow him to resign. He too must be forced to comply. Tish James’s initial refusal to accept Cuomo’s offers to appoint his own investigators, and the Legislature partially curbing Cuomo’s emergency powers, are clear signals that the power is shifting. But it’s not inevitable — far from it — that we’ve seen the end of Andrew Cuomo.
An escape path through the center puts the Democratic Party to the test. Will establishment Dems be as spineless as their Republican colleagues who refused to certify the Electoral College, or publicly admit that enabling Cuomo has gone on too long? If the centrists hold the line (Cuomo Facebook has twisted itself into a QAnon-level conspiracy bunch), will the left keep up pressure, or fold? This isn’t just a center-left question of New York State politics — this is a message heard quite literally around the post-2008 world.
With eyes on a fourth term as Governor, Cuomo is betting that this will all go away. But, this time, he knows he can’t do it all by himself. He needs a Democratic Party (to which he has shown little loyalty) to stay loyal, and let him drag them down. Cuomo’s perfectly willing to tear the Democratic Party right down the middle to save himself.
Will Washington keep enabling this abuser? Sadly, there’s precedent for that, too.
