Andrew Cuomo must be removed from office.
Either by his own resignation or by impeachment in the legislature. His day is done, the hole is too deep, we have suffered enough.
It is time for the progressive community to rise against him, for the Democrat establishment to throw off his yoke, for his intimidated subordinates to storm the castle. Conditioned to subservience by his harsh temper and spiteful vindictiveness, rank-and-file Democrats in the administration and in the press must unify around his removal.
He deserves it, and so do we.
His actions over the last several days are the icing on the cake, the final declaration of unsuitability for public office and continued public power.
Twice, when an accuser made allegations against him, he said they were false. And his administration leaked details of her official state personnel record, in retaliation. When another accuser came forward, he said that her allegations were likewise false.
Pressed for an investigation, he picked the former legal partner of one of his lackeys. That was on Saturday. When that effort to rig the investigation failed, he was forced to call for the attorney general and chief justice to appoint a law firm to look into him. That was Sunday – the same day he issued a PR statement in which he seemed to acknowledge the truthfulness of the accusations against him while maintaining that he was misunderstood and had meant no harm.
That meant that when he intimated through his denials that the women were lying, it was actually he who was lying. Lying and, unavoidably, trying to defame them. He did that twice just last week. That not only defames them it also was very likely to damage them professionally.
And all that was just over the last few days – before you even get to the veracity and gravity of the women’s allegations against him.
And all of that is in the context of his admitted deception of the state legislature about nursing home covid deaths, and a federal criminal investigation of his leadership of the state’s covid task force.
And all of that is in the context of an unabashed war with the mayor of the state’s largest city, the unnecessary and capricious crippling of the state’s economy, and the complete ignoring of any pretense of state-government checks and balances over the last year.
And all of that is in the context of a crude, vicious, savage leadership style that has left people across the state nodding their heads in recognition as Assemblyman Ron Kim recounts his verbal assault at the hands of Andrew Cuomo. A verbal assault, by the way, that the governor dishonestly denied, while savaging the Democrat assemblyman during one of his patently narcissistic covid briefings.
None of this is tolerable, and none of this is necessary.
The Democrats can flush this man and do the state a great service.
If they remove him, they lose no power, but we all lose a dictator.
And that’s something the speaker of the Assembly and the majority leader of the Senate – and all New York Democrats everywhere – should consider. He is a dictator. And he damages even his allies. And his allies don’t need him in order to hold on to power.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is capable and strong, and there is an election next year. And the enrollment advantage is not going anywhere. That means removing Cuomo is a no-lose proposition for Democrats and progressives. They get to keep power. In fact, they will actually, for the first time, get power. They have provided the votes, but Cuomo has reaped the benefit. He hasn’t brought anything electorally to the table.
Democrats don’t hold power in New York because of Cuomo; Cuomo holds power in New York because of Democrats. And maybe Democrats need to stop facilitating his autocratic lording over this state.
Maybe Democrats should take him down.
But they can’t go halfway. They can’t be tentative. They can’t be piecemeal. They have to strike hard and fast, and flush him down the political drain.
Because Emerson was right: “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”
And if Andy survives this, he’s coming for you all. His vengeance against the entire political structure will be unleashed. All who called for an investigation, all who didn’t sufficiently defend him, all who called for his neck. Life will get hard for every critic. His surliness will only increase and his sense of invincibility will know no bounds.
In short, lance this boil, or the infection is going to get worse.
That’s the duty of New York Democrats.
You gave us Cuomo, now you’ve got to get rid of him.
Through pressure or proceedings, push him out the door.
Now.