Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo enters the listening to room earlier than a Home Oversight and Accountability Choose Coronavirus Pandemic Subcommittee listening to on New York state’s COVID-19 pandemic response, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
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Contemporary chatter that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will quickly bounce into the 2025 Democratic mayoral main sparked a volley of rebukes from a number of the race’s already declared candidates.
Left-leaning Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander and socialist Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) wasted no time on Nov. 26 in blasting Cuomo for reportedly persevering with to circle round subsequent 12 months’s mayor’s race with out formally leaping in. Their broadsides in opposition to Cuomo had been sparked by a Tuesday Jewish Insider report citing three annonymous sources who indicated Cuomo will imminently launch his bid for mayor.
Lander, in a scathing assertion, charged that Cuomo has not lived within the metropolis for a lot of his grownup life. Cuomo has typically referred to as himself a “Queens boy,” having grown up in South Jamaica and attended Archbishop Molloy Excessive College in Briarwood. In later years, nonetheless, he lived within the Westchester County suburbs.
“Andrew Cuomo can’t even manage his own launch for mayor, let alone a city he left 30 years ago,” Lander stated. “The last thing New Yorkers need right now is another agent of corruption and chaos.”
Cuomo’s long-time spokesperson, Wealthy Azzopardi, would neither verify nor deny the outlet’s reporting in a press release, as a substitute saying it’s “all premature.”
On the similar time, he pointed to an inventory of Cuomo’s purported successes as governor, together with the development of three Second Avenue Subway stations on Manhattan’s Higher East Facet and a brand new terminal at LaGuardia Airport.
The renewed rumors about Cuomo’s political future come as increasingly contenders have introduced their bids for mayor within the wake of Mayor Eric Adams’ federal indictment on corruption prices in late September.
Lander additionally took goal on the former governor’s alleged cowl up of nursing residence deaths throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, his referral to the Justice Division by a Republican Home panel for allegedly mendacity to them about his function within the incident and the sexual misconduct allegations that led to his resignation in 2021.
“Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home negligence, constant criminal probes, personal enrichment scandals, coverups, sexual assault allegations, federal perjury drama, interference with anti-corruption commissions, ignoring public health guidelines, misuse of government staff, and an inner circle convicted of public corruption, makes for quite a campaign platform,” he stated.
Cuomo fiercely denies the allegations of sexual misconduct, of which there are almost a dozen. He additionally denies wrongdoing round nursing residence deaths throughout COVID.
Mamdani, in a Tuesday video interview, contended that Cuomo has delayed formally becoming a member of the race to place off really having to reply for his file because the state’s high govt — a place he held for over a decade.
“Andrew Cuomo knows that the longer he is in this race the more difficulat it is for him,” Mamdani charged. “That’s why he has yet to announce his candidacey, because he doesn’t want to expose himself to four, five, six months of an actual inspection of his record. He wants to simply cost on the reputation that he used public dollars to burnish. A reputation he was more interested in than saving New Yorkers’ lives at the height of COVID.”
Different candidates together with former metropolis Comptroller Scott Stringer have additionally not been shy about occurring the assault in opposition to Cuomo. His marketing campaign launched a memo final month enumerating Cuomo’s potential liabilities — notably not together with the sexual misconduct allegations.
Stringer has been hit along with his personal sexual misconduct accusations, which derailed his 2021 bid for mayor.
Whereas Cuomo has been floating the potential for operating for mayor for almost a 12 months, as he appears to be like to make a political comeback, these near him have at all times emphasised that he wouldn’t run in a contest that also consists of Adams. However it’s unclear if Cuomo has modified his pondering within the wake of Adams’ federal indictment.
