New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will resign in two weeks. USA Today. Cuomo was in his third term and was brought down by a sexual harassment scandal. With Cuomo on his way out his Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Hochul, will take over as the first female governor of New York. Cuomo had resisted calls for him to resign for months, and not just because of his sexual harassment allegations. He was also responsible for lying about the states Coronavirus numbers and for sending infected patients to nursing homes, resulting in thousands of deaths. However, the killing blow for Cuomo was a report released by the State's Attorney General, that detailed many claims of harassment, with at least 11 cases being confirmed. Cuomo eventually chose to step down as there were efforts to impeach and remove him.
My Comment:
What a fall from 2020. Back then Cuomo was the medias golden boy and was widely praised for his response to the coronavirus, even though it was obvious back then that he was screwing up royally. He went to the golden boy to persona non-grata very quickly.
And I still wonder why. Democrats usually don't go down in sexual harassment scandals unless they are exceptional or if they had major political enemies. The Democrats seemed to have learned their lessons in the MeToo era after they got rid of Al Franken. Since then they have been much more forgiving towards sexual harassment. After all, Joe Biden was credibly accused of rape by Tara Reade and was shown on video making dozens of women and girls very uncomfortable but the accusations against him were laughed off. Biden's harassment claims were much more serious than Cuomo's so I wonder why they decided to throw him under the bus.
It could be a reaction to his Coronavirus scandal. Though few seemed to care that his actions led to the death of thousands of New York State citizens but his reaction to that probably sealed his fate. The Democrats in the state were furious with him for not being honest about the scandal and stonewalling them when they tried to investigate it. That might have been enough to seal his fate.
As for the harassments cases themselves, I tend to believe him. Cuomo always seemed like a scumbag and I can believe that he was harassing the women under him and not really think there is anything wrong with it. Even during his resignation he didn't seem to think he did anything wrong and blamed everything on the changing culture.
I think his brother, Chris Cuomo needs to face some consequences as well. Chris helped his brother with his scandal and though journalistic ethics are a joke, he should not have been an anchor on CNN while this was happening. He should have at least disclosed that he was helping his brother. I doubt anything will happen to him though, as CNN and ethics cannot be used in the same sentence with each other unless its in a negative way.
I don't know what happens next for New York. Lt Governor Kathy Hochul is a mystery for me, she doesn't have anywhere near the profile that Cuomo has. She will be the first female governor and the first in a long time to not be from New York City or the Hudson Valley. I would hope that would give her more of a balanced perspective but I doubt it. She is a Democrat after all..
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