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A bipartisan push for independent investigations into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conduct is gaining more support throughout the county. Despite growing concerns over sexual harassment allegations and a nursing home scandal, one democratic leader remains silent about his colleague’s actions.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who took over as co-chair of the Democratic Governors Association has yet to say anything about Cuomo or the reports coming out of the Big Apple.
The New York Governor faces calls from his own party to resign for claims he falsified nursing home data to hide the number of actual deaths that happened in the state. Mostly due to his orders that sent COVID-19-positive patients into the facilities without regard to others patients classified as high-risk.
Cuomo also has at least three different allegations of sexual harassment against him.
The Associated Press reported that his former aide Lindsey Boylan, 36, accused him of a series of harassing acts, including “kissing her without consent and suggesting a game of strip poker aboard his state-owned jet.” Another former aide, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said Cuomo asked if she ever had sex with older men and said he was “fine dating anyone above the age of 22.”
All of this and still nothing from Cooper condemning Cuomo’s actions. The two Governors are close in proximity both being on the east coast, along with sharing similar policies pertaining to the COVID-19 crisis. But there is more to the relationship between Cooper and Cuomo. In fact, one of Cooper’s first re-election campaign events was hosted last year in New York City at the home of a prominent Democratic political donor.
Does the relationship between the two keep Cooper from commenting about the situation? He was quick to call on Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to resign following racist yearbook photos that surfaced. Also, Cooper pressed former NC House member Duane Hall to quit following accusations similar to the ones leveled at Cuomo.
New Mexico Governor and chair of the DGA, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said last week the allegations against Cuomo need to be taken seriously.
“I’m, frankly, in that group of elected leaders, that you believe the individual, you give real credit and credibility there, if you don’t, we are revictimizing brave men and women who come forward,” Gov. Grisham said in the interview with KRQE-TV.
She went on to say, “Certainly you’ve got someone, an elected leader, who isn’t challenging the veracity of the facts, the statements, it happened, ‘I had staff involved’ and apologized. That’s the climate we should come to expect by every elected leader, in that context, and having a transparent, independent investigation so that you can look at the context of these conversations and statements, I think is important,”
Cuomo is the current chairman of the National Governors Association, overseeing the nation’s fifty-five governors including US territories and commonwealths.
Democratic leaders such as Cooper have a responsibility to publicly demand that Cuomo step down. So far, not even as much as a statement to recognize Cuomo’s wrongdoing has been passed on by Cooper’s office. It’s time for those in leadership to be accountable for their actions and for the New York Governor to be removed from the NGA.
