The acting governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has fired this Monday from public life through a recorded message in which he charges against the state attorney general, Letitia James, and her investigation into the accusations of sexual harassment made by 11 women who worked with him. Alluding to a witch hunt, and without making any reference to his political future, the one that in his day even sounded like a Democratic presidential candidate ended a decade as governor, definitively frustrating his intention to aspire to a fourth term due to the anomalies around him. the management of the coronavirus in nursing homes in the State and, above all, by the shock wave of the MeToo movement, which pushed a dozen collaborators to step forward and denounce the climate of machismo and intimidation existing in Albany, headquarters of the State government.
Cuomo, who will be replaced by his number twoKathy Hochul, the first female governor in the history of the state, has also blamed politicians – especially the most progressive wing of the Democrats – and the press for her fall from grace. In little more than a year, Cuomo has descended from the height of popularity as a media manager of the pandemic to mud, becoming a plague even within his own party. Following the findings of the prosecution’s investigation, President Joe Biden and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, called for his resignation. Resignation that will take effect this Monday, after the governor threw in the towel on August 10 to prevent an impeachment process that has already begun.
It was an unannounced resignation, which seemed never to be substantiated. Cuomo had endured the succession of criticism for the management of the pandemic and for his liberality in dealing with his collaborators, the result, according to him, of his expansive Italian-American character. First, in January, the resignation of a dozen State epidemiological experts was known, dissatisfied with their arbitrariness in the vaccination plans. Next, the makeup of the death toll from covid-19 in nursing homes was uncovered, with a balance significantly lower than the real one when many inmates were transferred to hospitals and thus excluding deaths from the official count. In parallel, the first complaints of sexual harassment were known, which the governor rejected with apologies for having been misinterpreted in his physical approach to women.
“When the government politicizes the accusations and the headlines condemn without facts, the judicial system is undermined, and that does not serve women, or men, or society,” Cuomo said in the farewell message, full of darts against his Democratic co-religionists in Albany for the failure of the negotiations for Amazon to build a headquarters in New York, as well as for wanting to withdraw funds from the police, in line with the so-called movement defund the Police, emerged as a result of the murder of African-American George Floyd in 2020. In the midst of the upswing in armed violence in the state, Cuomo declared a state of emergency in early July to combat the phenomenon.
The son of the also three-time governor Mario Cuomo, who has a reputation for having few scruples, said today when announcing his retirement that he assumed “full responsibility for his actions” even though he continues to maintain that he has not gone too far with anyone. Prolonging the crisis unleashed by his alleged harassment “could only cause a government paralysis,” he explained this Monday, before his term expires at midnight (six in the morning in mainland Spain). Hours before the deadline, Hochul announced the appointment of two women to the most important freely appointed positions in his cabinet.
Poetic justice or full confidence in colleagues and friends of decades, perhaps a combination of both, Hochul will have Karen Persichilli Keogh, as secretary of the governor – the highest position after hers -, and Elizabeth Fine, as adviser, to help him in the important tasks of “turning the page on the pandemic and ensuring in the best way the interests of New York, whether they be defeating the coronavirus, getting more people vaccinated or strengthening the economy” after the health emergency. Both councilors have proven experience in political circles in New York City and Washington, respectively, which will help Hochul navigate the stormy apparatus of the state. With respect to the rest of his team members, Hochul gives himself 45 days to decide how many of Cuomo’s collaborators are still in his government.
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