New York Gov. Cuomo has become desperate to avoid impeachment. He’s trying to bargain with state officials, according to a report in the local newspaper The City. An unnamed source told The City that Cuomo would decline to run for another term, in exchange for a halt to the impeachment process.
But who would want to make such a deal with Cuomo?
“It was something that was floated to me by the folks in the Cuomo camp as a possible option before the attorney general’s report came out,” New York state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs told the New York Post. “I never saw it as a viable option. … I shot it down pretty quick.”
“Either you can survive the AG’s report and run again or you don’t survive the AG’s report. There’s no compromise.”
The source also told The City that Cuomo’s longtime secretary, Melissa DeRosa, was asking Cuomo’s staff about legislative maneuvers to quash the impeachment process.
It seems that Cuomo is trying to serve the remainder of his third term, which expires at the end of the year 2022.
He has ignored calls for resignation, even as these calls are coming from far and wide. One poll found that 70% of Cuomo’s constituents want him to resign. The same poll says that 63% of them want Cuomo to be impeached. President Joe Biden himself said, “I think he should resign.”
Sure enough, impeachment is plodding along, and Cuomo’s offer is failing to attract any takers.
Cuomo made this attempt to bargain at a time when his inner circle is shrinking. In the last 24 hours, Cuomo’s future has become as bleak as ever. DeRosa resigned after 10 years, and the state Assembly Judiciary Committee called a meeting for updates on the investigation into Cuomo. Then, one accuser, Brittany Commisso, went on CBS This Morning to publicly accuse Cuomo reaching under her shirt and grabbing her breast.
So, why is Cuomo acting as if such a deal is even possible? Commisso’s interview may offer some insight.
“He almost has this smirk that he thinks that he’s untouchable,” Commisso said during the interview. “I almost feel like he has this sense of almost a celebrity status and it just — that was the tipping point. I broke down. I said, ‘He is lying.'”
The Horn editorial team