These have to be dark days for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. A year ago the “love gov,” as he was hailed back then, was riding high, with talk of his being a shoo-in for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024. Today he is the Bizarro World version of the love gov. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Friday finds that 70% of New Yorkers think he should resign, while another 55% say he should be charged with a crime.
Nowhere was the stark contrast between then and now more evident than in a rally held on Saturday by Cuomo supporters. According to the New York Post, the event, which took place outside the governor’s midtown Manhattan office, drew twenty (count ’em, 20) die-hard Cuomo-ites. All were women, and many carried signs with unfortunate messages like “Governor Andrew Cuomo Getting it Done for New York,” which might be misconstrued as an antagonistic reference to the 5,000 deaths that resulted from the governor’s order to nursing homes to accept patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. (RELATED: Now Cuomo blames nursing homes for COVID-19 deaths: They shouldn’t have obeyed my order)
The demands for Cuomo’s head, which are far more prevalent, stem from accusations by eleven women who swear that the governor sexually harassed them. The accusations gained credence last Wednesday with the release of a report by New York State Attorney General Letitia James summarizing the findings of a nearly year-long investigation.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Cuomo, who has repeatedly denied the claims, changed his tune after the AG report came out. Yes, he admitted, he is very touchy-feely with people, but excused his actions by submitting that it’s a “generational and cultural” thing, something he learned from his Italian mother.
But no one seems to be buying that excuse either. Joan Vennochi, of the Boston Globe, who is also Italian, wrote after listening to his latest spiel, which follows, “Sorry, Andrew Cuomo. ‘I am an over-60 Italian American male’ is not a defense for sexual harassment.”
