Prominent Democrats are calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign. It’s a great start, but Cuomo isn’t going to resign. They should be calling for him to be impeached and removed.
Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand joined the assortment of House Democrats from New York already calling on Cuomo to step down amid several sexual harassment accusations. The accusations gained traction coming on the heels of New York Attorney General Letitia James releasing a report that noted Cuomo was manipulating nursing home data.
It’s nice that Democrats have finally come around to recognizing Cuomo’s boorish behavior (the first accuser came forward in December) and to the nursing home cover-up that New York health officials admitted to back in May. But calling on him to resign is useless — nothing more than Democrats covering their bases so they can avoid criticism on the issue while Cuomo tries to wait it out. We know this because it’s exactly what happened with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
After Northam justified infanticide in a radio interview, someone dug up Northam’s medical school yearbook page, which included a picture of one man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood. Northam admitted to being in the picture (though he never specified which man he was), and Democrats from Schumer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the Congressional Black Caucus called on him to resign. Then-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, silent so far about Cuomo, were also on that list.
Yet, Northam is still the governor of Virginia. Democrats called for him to resign and then just dropped the issue entirely. For someone like Cuomo, who tried to cover up the preventable deaths caused by his nursing home order, that is unacceptable.
Calling on Cuomo to resign is meaningless if Democrats in the state legislature don’t follow through with impeaching and removing him. The chairman of the New York State Democratic Party is already trying to push Democrats away from impeachment, saying that because Cuomo isn’t going to resign, everyone should just move on. If Schumer, Gillibrand, and New York House Democrats are serious about holding Cuomo accountable, they should be encouraging the impeachment process to move forward and for Cuomo to be removed from office.
Roughly 40 Assembly Democrats will need to hold their ground to impeach Cuomo, and roughly 30 Democrats in the state Senate will have to back removal. Without real support from prominent members of their party, it’s entirely plausible that state Democrats simply drop the process after letting it get bogged down in pointless investigations. Congressional Democrats should not be allowed to ignore the issue moving forward just because they called for Cuomo to step down.
