Andrew Cuomo’s risky survival strategy
Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518454-5442 or email cchurchill@ timesunion. com
Faced with a sexual harassment scandal, Andrew Cuomo is asking New Yorkers to wait and be patient. “Get the facts, please, before forming an opinion,” the governor said earlier this month. “The Attorney General is doing (a) review. I will fully cooperate with it and then you will know the facts and make a decision when you know the facts.”
Point of clarification: Letitia James is not “doing” a “review.” With the help of two outside attorneys, the attorney general is conducting an investigation into misconduct allegations from a handful of current or former employees, including an aide who says she was groped at the Executive Mansion after being sent there to (supposedly) help the governor with his cell phone.
Despite the governor’s sug
gestion to the contrary, this is serious. The allegations are troubling. And New Yorkers deserve to know the truth.
In any event, it makes strategical sense that Cuomo, who says he never touched the women “inappropriately,” is seeking to buy time. Amid the many calls for his resignation, asking for patience allows him to change the subject while hoping the intense spotlight on the allegations by at least eight women fades.
What else could he do? But the strategy is risky. Unless all the women are lying, which is beyond improbable, the James report is likely to be unflattering, if not devastating. Cuomo, in other words, has placed the eggs of his political future in a very precarious basket.
Certainly, that has to be unsettling for the governor, especially since James, to her credit, has already demonstrated a willingness to hurt him when warranted.
In late January, you’ll remember, James infuriated and humiliated Team Cuomo with a searing report that rightly took the governor to task for dishonestly undercounting COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents.
That wound is still festering. James’ report seemingly led the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office to launch their own investigations into the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes and fatality data. The report, which blew the governor’s credibility to smithereens, also contributed to the impeachment investigation subsequently launched by the Assembly.
You can bet, then, that Cuomo is not pleased to have James overseeing an investigation that might decide whether he keeps his job. You can bet he’ll seek to minimize the risk.
For that reason, there’s an expectation among some observers that Cuomo and his allies — including the army of mostly anonymous accounts suddenly supporting the Democrat on Twitter — may soon begin working to discredit James and her investigation, particularly if the governor senses it isn’t going his way. Going on the offensive, of course, is very much in the governor’s nature.
The most obvious and predictable line of attack would be to suggest that James is compromised by her own ambition — that damaging the governor, in other words, is her Machiavellian attempt at weakening the occupant of an office she craves. The report is tainted by politics and “palace intrigue,” those aligned with the governor could say.
Cuomo adopted a similar strategy to deflect criticism on nursing homes. “Ugly politics,” he called it, falsely suggesting that anyone who questioned his policies was working on behalf of the Republican in the White House.
In deep-blue New York, there is little risk in blaming Donald Trump for everything and anything. Questioning the credibility of James, a fellow Democrat and the first Black woman elected to her office, is another matter.
According to a recent Siena Research Institute poll, 61 percent of Black New York voters have a favorable opinion of Cuomo, compared to just 37 percent of white voters.
If Cuomo and his allies too aggressively go after James, he’ll risk alienating one of the few segments of the voting population that remains in his corner. He could also annoy women attuned to notice the sexism inherent in calling out the ambition of a female politician.
Of course, another strategy might involve meddling with the James investigation from the start, an effort that might already be underway. As this newspaper reported last week, the Cuomo administration is providing attorneys to staffers called to speak with
James’ investigators, an offer that could be interpreted as an attempt to thwart unflattering testimony.
“The Executive Chamber’s decision to provide staffers with in-house attorneys to advise them and accompany them to interviews will have a chilling effect on potential witnesses or other accusers who wish to come forward,” said Deborah Katz, an attorney for one of the accusers. “Witnesses with whom I have spoken fear retaliation if they refuse to cooperate with the Executive Chamber’s lawyers.”
Retaliation? From Andrew Cuomo?
Well, that sounds par for the course. And at a time when the governor is fighting for his political life, expect the fight to get ugly.
Another strategy might involve meddling with the James investigation from the start, an effort that might already be underway.