Cuomo says storm won’t stop exit plan
Outgoing New York governor’s drive to dominate led to success, downfall
Back in 2018, when there was talk he might run for president, Andrew Cuomo insisted there was only one reason he would leave office early. And it wasn’t the White House.
“The only caveat,” he said, “is if God strikes me dead.”
Another possibility will be realized this week when the Democrat resigns, his allies gone, his legacy stained by allegations of sexual harassment. This ending was not brought about by a bolt from the heavens, but by 11 women who told their stories to investigators.
Cuomo said Sunday that he still plans to resign Tuesday morning, despite issuing a state of emergency for Tropical Storm Henri as it smacked Long Island’s eastern shore and dumped buckets of rain across the region.
“My final day is tomorrow, or Tuesday morning,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “I have asked my emergency management team, to the extent they were thinking of leaving Tuesday, that I would appreciate the accommodation for the good of the state if they can stay in place until this situation is completed.”
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who’s in line to take over as governor Tuesday, was not present at the news conference. Cuomo said she “has been briefed on all of this and we’re in constant communication.” Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the storm Saturday, which had already pushed record-setting levels of rainfall.
For those who watched Cuomo’s daily covid-19 briefings and saw a beacon of strength and competence, Cuomo’s departure from the governor’s mansion may seem a stunning reversal. For New Yorkers, and especially those who butted heads with Cuomo, it is a story about how his drive to dominate made him the master of New York politics and brought about his downfall.
“My natural instinct is to be aggressive and it doesn’t always serve me well,” Cuomo acknowledged in a recent memoir detailing his response to the pandemic. “I am a controlling personality. … But you show me a person who is not controlling, and I’ll show you a person who is probably not highly successful.”
If equating control with success led to Cuomo’s accomplishments, it also precipitated his undoing. Many of Cuomo’s accusers told investigators that the governor used his power and the threat of retaliation to harass them, believing they would never report him.
“The Andrew Cuomo I’ve known since 1995 has always been about power and control,” said Karen Hinton, a former aide to Cuomo when he was housing secretary under President Bill Clinton. “His bullying, his flirting, his sexual overtones are largely about controlling the person. He thought he’d get away with it because of that power and control.”
Hinton is not among the 11 women at the center of the attorney general’s report, but she has said Cuomo once gave her an uncomfortable hug in a hotel room that was “too long, too tight, too intimate.”
The investigation overseen by New York Attorney General Letitia James and led by two outside lawyers substantiated accusations that Cuomo touched women inappropriately, commented on their appearance or made suggestive comments about their sex lives. Most of the women worked in state government.
Cuomo has apologized for some of his actions, and said others were misunderstood. He has said some of the accusations are “unfair and untruthful” and driven by politics.
While he was initially defiant, he announced earlier this month that he plans to resign today. But not before one last emergency. Henri’s arrival put Cuomo back in the familiar role of responding to a natural disaster.
Whether it was Hurricane Sandy, winter storms in Buffalo or just a typical upstate snowstorm, Cuomo always seemed to be most engaged in times of natural disaster, sometimes even personally responding to motorists stranded in snowstorms — always captured on film, of course.
As governor, he announced big economic development programs designed to turn around the upstate economy. He corralled votes for gay marriage, gun control and tax caps.
Though he excels at the backroom deal-making culture of Albany, Cuomo never seemed as comfortable with the personal side of politics. He’s not a baby kisser, but rather a political operator who knows how the sausage gets made and seems to enjoy the work.
Cuomo also appeared to delight in diminishing opponents and critics, be they reporters or political rivals. He mocked one GOP opponent as short, dismissed 2018 Democratic Primary challenger Cynthia Nixon as a “prosecco sipping” actress and regularly bedeviled his one-time friend turned nemesis, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Cuomo declined to comment to The Associated Press through a spokesman, who also declined to comment on his behalf.
“My natural instinct is to be aggressive and it doesn’t always serve me well. I am a controlling personality . ... But you show me a person who is not controlling, and I’ll show you a person who is probably not highly successful.”
— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a memoir on his response to the pandemic