The feud between New York’s governor and the mayor of the state’s largest city continues, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio accusing aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo of participating in a cover-up.
De Blasio, a longtime critic of the governor despite both belonging to the Democratic Party, said the mounting evidence of wrongdoing in the Cuomo administration almost negates the need for an investigation because “everybody is admitting they covered up.”
“Brianna, it’s almost to the point where we don’t even need the full formal investigation because everybody is admitting they covered up,” he told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Friday. “This has been one after another piece of evidence that there was a full-fledged cover-up, that it was explicitly to help the governor sell his book. This was one of the motivating factors, a book that he used state employees to help write.”
ANDREW CUOMO ALIENATES DEMOCRATS AS SCANDALS CONTINUE TO UNFOLD
De Blasio noted the complaint that Cuomo used state resources to promote his book on leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was separate from “the many, many allegations of sexual assault, harassment that so many women have come forward with in tremendous detail.”
“It’s almost like you can’t believe this one person did all these things and is still in office, and that’s why I don’t think he should be in office any longer,” he concluded.
On April 19, Attorney General Letitia James received a referral from the comptroller to conduct a criminal investigation into Cuomo’s use of state resources for his book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic. The referral followed a March 31 ethics complaint from liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as it sought an inquiry into whether the Democratic governor violated a law prohibiting “the use of campaign funds for personal use,” arguing Cuomo’s reelection campaign “promoted sales of the book extensively on social media,” including at least four times on Facebook.
Cuomo insisted that members of his staff volunteered to help with the book, but his office acknowledged that there might be some “incidental” use of state resources, according to the New York Times.
The New York governor is under federal investigation for his handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic after Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa acknowledged that Cuomo’s office hid the state’s nursing home death toll out of concerns of political retribution from former President Donald Trump. Despite Beth Garvey, a special counsel and adviser to the governor, claiming in March of this year that nursing home death tolls couldn’t be “verified,” a document released last month showed that the Cuomo administration was tracking COVID-19 nursing home deaths since at least April 2020.
The governor has been accused of sexual harassment by 10 women despite Cuomo denying that he ever engaged in inappropriate touching. The allegations have resulted in two investigations: James is investigating the claims at the state level, and the New York State Assembly is directing an “impeachment investigation” to look into the matter in the Legislature.
Cuomo has also been accused of directing state health officials to give special COVID-19 testing access to members of his inner circle — claims denied by Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, as an “insincere efforts to rewrite the past” in an email to the Washington Examiner.
The allegations of misconduct led de Blasio to call for Cuomo to step down, calling some of the women’s claims “disgusting” and “troubling.”
“He can no longer serve as governor,” he added.
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Despite mounting pressure from within his party to resign, Cuomo, who is eligible to seek a fourth term in office in 2022, has vowed not to step down, saying that the allegations of impropriety against him are false.
De Blasio, who is term-limited, cannot seek reelection later this year.
