We’re getting to the not-if-but-when portion of the Andrew Cuomo career death-spiral, something which would be amusing to watch if it didn’t involve dead nursing home patients and alleged sexual abuse victims.
It’s kind of amazing that the number seven has made us forget about the number 12,743. The latter is the actual number of COVID deaths estimated to have happened to have happened due to coronavirus contracted in nursing homes after New York Attorney General Letitia James’ report on the Cuomo administration’s undercount.
Seven, meanwhile, is the current number of women who have accused the governor of sexual misconduct. As I’ve previously noted, don’t expect that number to stay static.
It’s arguably the unnamed sixth accuser that will be Cuomo’s final undoing — if, indeed, anything can shame him into resigning at this point. According to the Albany Times Union, the gubernatorial aide said she “had been called to the [governor’s] mansion under the apparent pretext of having her assist the governor with a minor technical issue involving his mobile phone. They were alone in Cuomo’s private residence on the second floor of the mansion when he closed the door and allegedly reached under her blouse and began to fondle her, according to the source.”
As the Times Union noted, “[t]he additional details describe the most egregious behavior attributed to the governor to date — conduct that could potentially be pursued as a misdemeanor sexual assault charge.”
That was on Wednesday. On Thursday, a Wall Street Journal report accused top Cuomo aides of calling former staffers in an attempt to discredit the governor’s first public accuser, former aide Lindsey Boylan.
“The calls were made by current administration officials and former aides who are still close to the governor’s office, according to several recipients,” the Journal reported.
“The outreach came at the behest of Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s top aide, according to people familiar with the effort.”
DeRosa, those with adept memories will also recall, was the aide who told New York Democrat legislators they didn’t publicly release nursing home death data because they “froze” after the Department of Justice initiated an investigation.
Anyone tuning into Cuomo’s Friday conference-call presser expecting a resignation isn’t familiar with how New York’s current governor rolls. In fact, the whole thing was billed as a regular coronavirus update.
What it turned into was Cuomo, a Democrat, accusing the Democrats calling for his resignation (including both New York senators) of “cancel culture.”
Really. Because 2021 couldn’t get any more dispiriting.
“Politicians who don’t know a single fact but yet form a conclusion and an opinion are in my opinion reckless and dangerous.
The people of New York should not have confidence in a politician who takes an opinion without knowing the facts and substance,” Cuomo said during the conference, according to The Hill.
“People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture and the truth. Let the review proceed, I’m not going to resign, I was not elected by the politicians, I was elected by the people.”
Why is he being canceled? Cuomo — who was so beloved by his own party less than a year ago that a goodly portion of them would have encased Joe Biden in concrete and thrown him off the side of a trawler somewhere in Long Island Sound if it meant the New York governor could become their presidential nominee — says it’s because he’s an outsider.
“I am not part of the political club, and you know what? I am proud of it,” Cuomo said.
“I have been in the public eye my entire life. My entire life I have been under public scrutiny, since I was 23 years old and ran my father’s campaign. New Yorkers know me. Wait for the facts.”
Yeah, the guy whose father was a three-term governor of New York and the subject of perennial presidential speculation isn’t “part of the political club,” which is why he’s “been in the public eye my entire life … since I was 23 years old and ran my father’s campaign.”
In February, Disney fired “The Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano after comments she made comparing the treatment of conservatives to political demonization in Nazi Germany.
Earlier this week, Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall said he would be taking some “time away from the band to examine my blindspots” after reading Andy Ngo’s anti-antifa book and praising it.
Even Dr. Seuss was recently canceled for caricatures deemed racially insensitive.
You know who wasn’t canceled? A governor who covered up thousands of nursing home COVID deaths, expressed no sympathy and has stood accused of at least seven incidents of sexual impropriety. That’s not “cancel culture.” That’s actually engaging in behavior that would (and should) get him canceled.
It’s not if but when. Gov. Cuomo could have resigned long ago and saved himself this sturm und drang. Now he wants us to believe, as people are actually being canceled, that he’s a victim of cancel culture because he’s not part of the “part of the political club” even though he’s the very definition of it.
It’s well past time for him to go — and to stop blaming others (or “cancel culture”) for his own self-evident mistakes.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
