By Bradley Stein
A petition to impeach Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached 18,000 signatures Tuesday, state Assemblyman Kieran Lalor, who launched the petition Saturday, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Republican lawmaker started the petition in response to leaked audio of a closed door meeting between New York state Senate Democrats and Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa. During the meeting, DeRosa reportedly admitted that the state hid data involving nursing deaths from former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department in order to avoid a federal investigation. (RELATED: ‘Nursing Home Worker Says Gov. Cuomo Will ‘Never Take Responsibility For What He Has Done’)
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“It’s worth noting this is 100% organic,” Lalor told the DCNF in a private message. “No one is paying to boost it on social media and unlike sites like change.org, where they push your petition to people who have a propensity, this has been done so far by my social media and that of people who support the petition,” Lalor said.
Lalor has stated that the governor’s handling of COVID-19 has been far worse than reported and that the recent New York attorney general’s report on underreported nursing home deaths is just the start of what went wrong on Cuomo’s watch.
“It has been worse than reported by his most ardent critics. He locked down the economy and then his unemployment insurance system melted down. People couldn’t get on unemployment for months. Originally, he wouldn’t allow corrections officers to wear PPE, because we didn’t have enough to give the prisoners. That was only reversed after a big outcry,” Lalor told the DCNF.
“The restaurant curfew and requirement that you eat a ‘meal’ with your beer is a joke. Then he cruelly sent Liquor Authority agents to aggressively enforce his mandates which were based on whim, not science,” Lalor said.
Lalor further stated that he “1 million percent” supported the push by Democrats to strip Cuomo of his emergency powers, but said doing that alone would be a “trap”.
“I was one of only a handful who voted not to give emergency powers last year, but that is a trap. It’s a way for Democrats and weak Republicans to avoid dealing with the nursing home scandal while pretending like they have checked Cuomo,” said in the message.
Lalor further stated that he “1 million percent” supported the push by Democrats to strip Cuomo of his emergency powers, but said doing that alone would be a “trap”.
“I was one of only a handful who voted not to give emergency powers last year, but that is a trap. It’s a way for Democrats and weak Republicans to avoid dealing with the nursing home scandal while pretending like they have checked Cuomo,” said in the message.
“The nursing home order wasn’t an executive order under the emergency powers. It was a routine department of health mandate that could have been issued under normal executive powers,” added Lalor.
When asked how he would classify the governor’s handling of COVID-19, Lalor sarcastically responded that Cuomo should “write a book, get an Emmy and a prime speaking spot at the DNC.”
An incumbent governor of New York can only be removed if a simple majority of the New York state Senate and Assembly vote to impeach them.
Lalor’s petition website states a governor can be impeached by the state Assembly for “willful and corrupt conduct” and removed, letting the lieutenant governor take over.
“An impeached New York governor doesn’t regain executive authority unless acquitted in the impeachment trial. Thus, if 76 of the 150 Members of the New York State Assembly vote to impeach, Gov. Cuomo would be stripped of executive authority,” the petition website said.
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