New York Assembly Republicans who want to investigate Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his handling of the pandemic would likely subpoena a top aide to the governor.
GOP state lawmakers, currently in the minority of the Assembly, announced on Thursday that they planned to introduce a resolution next week to establish an impeachment commission to carry out this investigation.
“I think the No. 1 [witness] would be his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, who in that bombshell meeting that was reported where she said, ‘We’re not releasing the data because we’re worried about the Department of Justice investigation, and even worse, we’re worried about the political fallout,’” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, a Republican, told the Washington Examiner during an interview on SiriusXM’s Patriot Channel’s David Webb Show Friday.
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Barclay added, “And clearly, it’s not just Republicans. This is the Democratic-run Department of Justice in the Eastern District of New York. … They think there’s something there, too.” This is a reference to the FBI and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office launching an investigation earlier in the week into Cuomo’s handling of the nursing home death count during the coronavirus pandemic.
Barclay said he is optimistic that Republicans can get Democrats in the Assembly involved. The lower chamber has a total of 150 members, and the effort to establish an impeachment commission would need the support of 76.
“There seems to be some cracks in the wall, the political wall that may have been protecting the governor,” Barclay said. “Some of the behavior of the governor has come out recently, particularly in regards to a colleague of mine, Assemblyman Ron Kim from New York City, where the governor got on and bullied him and said that ‘I can destroy you.'”
Barclay added, “I know [Republicans] certainly wouldn’t take well to that. But I think a lot of the Democratic legislators are not taking well to that. And so their willingness, maybe they’re paid some political capital to try to protect them.”
Cuomo hit back at his critics during a press conference on Friday.
“We didn’t fight back against the lies and the politics and the distortions aggressively enough. In retrospect, that is true. It is whack-a-mole. It is that Twitter, 24 hours a day. It is politicians making up stuff to get their face on TV. I get it,” he said. “But you have to knock it down and counter and counter it aggressively. Otherwise, people will believe it.”
So far, the only New York governor to be impeached was Democratic Gov. William Sulzer, who in 1913 was convicted by the state Legislature when evidence was shown that he had falsified sworn statements of campaign expenditures. Some lawmakers would like to make Cuomo the second.
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“We have not been through this. The last time they did impeachment on the New York state governor was back in 1913. Actually, that’s where we use the precedents to put together this impeachment commission that we’re talking about,” Barclay explained. “But nevertheless, I’m thrilled that law enforcement is starting to look at this, and the Eastern District, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is now investigating.”
