Can Cuomo Atone?
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been laying the groundwork for a political comeback, most likely a run for mayor, by blasting current electeds for New York’s woes. Yet the ex-gov himself bears great responsibility for those problems. If anyone is to take him seriously he’ll need to atone.
Last week, Cuomo joined ex-Gov. David Paterson in ripping fellow Democrats for their handling of crime, the migrant crisis and congestion pricing. Days earlier, in a Post column, he inveighed against today’s “politics,” claiming it’s “driven by the activist extremes.” Yet today “is a time of serious problems that require comprehensive solutions.”
Hmm: Guess when he was gov, problems mustn’t have been so serious, because he routinely caved to extremists. Recall:
He bowed to radical pro-criminal progressives in signing into law “reforms” ( cashless bail, Raise the Age, etc.) that fueled a 33% spike in major felonies in the city since 2019.
He rammed through a climate bill that’s forcing up electric bills, jeopardizing the grid and requiring hated lifestyle changes (no more gas stoves!) and expensive infrastructure changes. It’ll do little to slow global warming, but the hard greens love it.
He helped push through the congestionpricing scheme, which won’t do much for climate change or ease traffic but will squeeze money from people lacking mass-transit options to pay for transit that serves others.
He ordered devastating, overly broad lockdown rules during the pandemic and — most unforgivably — ordered nursing homes (which housed the most vulnerable) to accept COVID-positive patients, leading to hundreds of needless deaths.
Will Cuomo own up to any of this? Sure, he now opposes congestion pricing — but only, as he put it in The Post, because it’s not the “right time” for it. (That is: Backing it now could hurt my comeback chances.)
He decries the spike in crime, but how would he undo or at least fix all those harmful reforms that bear his fingerprints?
Will he accept responsibility for the damage being done by his lunatic climate law? Restore the psychiatric beds he cut and push to make it easier to get violent mentally ill people off the streets? How about admitting the failure of his lockdowns and his deadly nursing-home order?
Apologies and vows to do better aren’t enough — he has to mean it. If he can’t visibly show he’s learned all his lessons, any Cuomo comeback only means more tragedy.