Impeach Governor Cuomo
Governor Andrew Cuomo giving a coronavirus news briefing in Albany on March 3, 2021. During the broadcast, Cuomo also publicly acknowledged the numerous sexual assault claims made against him. Photo via C-SPAN.
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault.
Since December 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has been accused by nine women of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault, resulting in an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James. If this wasn’t bad enough, Cuomo is also under investigation for covering up nursing home deaths and offering preferential treatment for COVID-19 testing to his family at the start of the pandemic. Today, only four in ten New Yorkers believe he should resign – a number that should be far higher, considering the corruption, arrogance, and ineptitude his administration represents. Governor Cuomo desecrates the concept of public service; for the good of his state, he must resign. If he does not, it is the responsibility of the state legislature to remove him.
Impeachment Reason 1: Covering Up Nursing Home Deaths
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Cuomo’s leadership was glorified as a foil to President Trump. From nationally broadcasting his press conferences to suggesting he should run for president in 2024, mainstream media found a hero in New York’s governor, ignoring inconvenient truths about his administration. For example, in March, his COVID-19 budget instituted an immunity shield for nursing homes, reducing the liability of nursing homes in the deaths of their clients. The liability shield made it more difficult for the families of nursing home patients to sue nursing homes on the grounds that these facilities were short-staffed and failed to supply adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). As Assemblyman Ron Kim said, Cuomo’s policy gave these facilities “a license to kill, a get-out-of-jail free card.” When trying to hold him accountable, Kim alleged that Cuomo threatened to “destroy” him. By irresponsibly placing Cuomo on an undeserved pedestal, national media coverage failed to scrutinize a policy that endangered residents. That law was ultimately repealed in March of 2021 – but the media could have caught the problem and held Governor Cuomo accountable for thousands of deaths far earlier if they had done their due diligence while reporting.
Instead of taking responsibility for skyrocketing nursing home numbers, Governor Cuomo worked to conceal the number of deaths. A New York Times investigation in March of 2021 found that Cuomo directed his aides to artificially deflate the reported numbers of nursing home deaths, underreporting figures by as much as half. When the New York state legislature sought such data, Cuomo’s team withheld it for fear of it being used against him by the Trump administration. At the end of April 2021, the Cuomo administration rejected Freedom of Information Act requests from the press regarding the outbreaks experienced in nursing homes, despite this information being a right of the press and public.
Even prior to the pandemic, Cuomo was a corporate Democrat who benefitted handsomely from large corporate donors. In October of 2020, Forbes examined Cuomo’s list of donors and found that he had received $6.2 million in campaign contributions from 347 state vendors since 2014. These same vendors, from private hospitals to large real estate and construction companies, also reaped $7 billion in state subsidies in that time frame, raising ethical concerns. Cuomo’s decision to accept millions from major corporate donors reflects the deeper corruption of campaign finance contributions in politics. As much as Cuomo’s aides sought to deny the influence of corporate donors on Cuomo’s policy positions and appointments, Dr. Clayton Peoples wrote for Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics in 2014 about two meta-analyses that drew an obvious conclusion: “contributions significantly influence policy.” In Cuomo’s case, that influence killed.
Impeachment Reason 2: Sexual harassment
The number of accusations against Governor Cuomo and the evidence substantiating them is overwhelming. Lindsey Boylan, who previously worked as a special advisor to the Governor, alleged that Cuomo kissed her against her consent, touched her excessively, and made suggestive comments in the workplace. Charlotte Bennett, an advisor for Cuomo until November of 2020, detailed the governor asking her uncomfortable questions about her sex life, including if she had “ever been with an older man.” Anna Ruch reported that Cuomo clasped her face and asked if he could kiss her at a wedding. In March 2021, an unnamed female aide alleged that she had been groped by the governor. These are less than half of the awful experiences accusers have brought forth. They represent a consistent pattern of harassment and misconduct that Cuomo has engaged in for years, crossing professional boundaries and causing discomfort.
In response, Cuomo has denied all of the allegations, gaslighting accusers along the way (such as responding to Sherry Vill’s allegation that Cuomo had forcibly kissed her in a sexual way by saying that the governor “sought to comfort New Yorkers with hugs and kisses” in times of crisis).
Cuomo’s behavior is consistent with the chauvinistic, predatory behaviors the Me Too movement has uncovered. In response, almost the entirety of the New York congressional delegation – including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand – have called on him to resign. Unfortunately, partisan loyalty continues to silence survivors as new allegations are treated as political issues instead of moral ones. Over half of the New York state legislature has called on Cuomo to step down, but the majority of the Democratic caucus has opted not to call for his resignation (95 out of 148 Democrats have not made public statements). In her personal account, Boylan asks: “We are accustomed to powerful men behaving badly when no one is watching. But what does it say about us when everyone is watching and no one says a thing?”
Despite the overwhelming evidence, Cuomo has continued to reject the possibility of resignation, saying he won’t bow to ‘cancel culture.’ Cuomo’s inability to grapple with the severe harm caused by his own behavior is why the state legislature must step up to impeach him. The New York state assembly has initiated an impeachment investigation which has already received hundreds of tips from across the state. It is imperative that both houses follow through to remove Cuomo, should these investigations find him guilty.
To allow politics to smear accusers is to perpetuate a dangerous culture where survivors never seek to step forward. Whether it is Cuomo or Trump, sexual assault allegations should be taken seriously and be evaluated on their merits. The Associated Press’s decision to frame calls from Congressional lawmakers to resign as “defections” politicizes an issue the vast majority of Americans agree on. At its core, holding an elected official accountable is not a defection – it is the bare minimum for human decency.
Impeachment
It is obvious that Cuomo is deeply immoral and has engaged in impeachable offenses. This disgust is not partisan; it is human. I am a Democrat writing this article after hearing about the Cuomo scandals from a conservative friend and doing my own research. I’ve been horrified to uncover so many details of corruption, nepotism, and collusion – each representing an abuse of power, pain, and trauma – from a loved one’s death being erased from the record and being unable to sue negligent nursing homes to the violence of sexual assault. When we talk about this case, these human stories must not be forgotten.
Andrew Cuomo represents the worst of the Democratic party: a neoliberal corporatist who has built his political platform on bullying, lies, and harassment. His track record is a stain on the Democratic Party, and has caused tangible harm to his constituents. There is a statutory, but more importantly, a moral obligation to remove him from office.
Ranen Miao (he/him) is a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis studying political science and sociology. This article was submitted to CPR as a pitch. To write a response, or to submit a pitch of your own, we invite you to use the pitch form on our website.