Cuomo’s drive to dominate led to success — and 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 Monday, when the Democrat resigns in disgrace, 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.
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.”
But 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 Monday. He will be replaced by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is set to become New York’s first female governor.
Cuomo declined to comment to The Associated Press through a spokesman, who also declined to comment on his behalf. Cuomo’s remaining loyalists have instead taken to social media to defend his accomplishments as governor, a list that includes the very sexual harassment laws he is accused of violating.
His next professional steps are also unclear. In today’s post #MeToo climate, the public may be even less forgiving, according to Doug Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College.
“It will overshadow most voters’ thinking,” Muzzio said. “He has a lot of accomplishments. He has been a master builder. When he got elected, the state was in a $10 billion budget hole. And he solved it without raising taxes. But will anyone remember that?”