Breaking: Democratic NY Assembly speaker opens impeachment investigation against Gov. Andrew Cuomo



The leader of the New York State Assembly, himself a Democrat, announced on Thursday that he had authorized an impeachment inquiry to be opened against Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the numerous allegations of sexual harassment made in recent weeks.

Speaker Carl Heastie (D) said in his statement that the allegations against Cuomo were serious enough to warrant the investigation.

"After meeting with the Assembly Majority Conference today, I am authorizing the Assembly Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment investigation, led by Chair Charles D. Lavine, to examine allegations of misconduct against Governor Cuomo," wrote Heastie.

"The reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious. The committee will have the authority to interview witnesses, subpoena documents and evaluate evidence, as is allowed by the New York State Constitution. I have the utmost faith that Assemblymember Lavine and the members of the committee will conduct an expeditious, full and thorough investigation," he added.

"This inquiry will not interfere with the independent investigation being conducted by Attorney General James," Heastie concluded.

Cuomo is facing numerous allegations of sexual harassment ranging from unwanted touching to claims constituting criminal battery.

The embattled Democrat has addressed many of the accusations and claimed that they were the result of misunderstandings, but he has not admitted to committing unwanted physical contact with the accusers.

On Wednesday a sixth accuser came forward and claimed that Cuomo had reached under her blouse and "aggressively groped" her while they were both in the governor's mansion in 2020.

Cuomo is also facing the backlash from numerous scandals surrounding his decision to order coronavirus patients to be treated at nursing homes during the height of the pandemic. More than ten thousand deaths ensued and his administration has admitted to hiding some of the data from the lethal and egregious debacle.

59 Democratic state legislators have already called for Cuomo to resign.

Here's more about the allegations against Cuomo:

6th Woman Accuses Gov. Andrew Cuomo Of Inappropriate Behavior | TODAYwww.youtube.com

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo's approval rating takes a nosedive after latest bombshell scandals



A new poll shows a steep nosedive in the approval rating for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) over recent bombshell accusations of sexual harassment made against him.

Cuomo, 63, had an approval rating of 71% of New Yorkers in April 2020, but the latest Emerson College/WPIX-TV/NewsNation poll found his rating had collapsed to 38%.

The formerly popular governor has been hammered by sexual harassment scandals from two former aides and another woman who objected to his advances at a wedding. He has also had to face tough questions about the cover-up of data from the coronavirus deaths after he ordered infected patients to receive care at the state's nursing homes.

In a media briefing Wednesday, the beleaguered Democrat apologized for making the women feel "uncomfortable," but he denied the more damaging accusations that he inappropriately touched and kissed women. He also declared that he would not resign as governor over the allegations.

"I'm not going to resign," Cuomo said. "I work for the people of the state of New York. They elected me, and I'm going to serve the people of the state of New York."

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the sexual harassment claims from the three women against Cuomo.

Other results from the poll were more troubling for Cuomo's political future.

Nearly two-thirds of the New York voters polled said that Cuomo should not be re-elected to a fourth term (64%). Cuomo garnered a slim majority of support from Democrats for re-election, with 52% in favor and 48% opposed.

Cuomo, who was elected to governor in 2010, will be up for re-election in 2022.

Despite the massive drop in approval for the governor, Emerson College Polling director Spencer Kimball said the poll showed that Cuomo "still has a base with women voters."

Among women, 43% still approved of Cuomo, while 56% of men disapproved of him. Only 40% of women disapproved of Cuomo while 33% of men still approved of him.

Cuomo also retained the approval of a majority of voters identifying themselves as black or African American (62%).

The poll was conducted March 1-2, and had a sample size of 700 registered voters in New York.

Here's more about the plummeting popularity:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's approval rating drops amid scandalswww.youtube.com

'Andrew Cuomo is not an essential worker': Rolling Stone writer on why New York doesn't need him — and neither does the rest of the country



A writer for left-wing Rolling Stone has had it with Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his record of "building the impression that he is indispensable in New York and national politics."

The governor's legend status is a "myth," according to Jack Crosbie, "and it's time to call him on it."

What did he write?

In a commentary piece for the famously liberal magazine, regular contributor Crosbie took a look at the recent scandals surrounding Cuomo regarding both his personal and professional conduct.

The governor is taking fire on two fronts.

First, there's Cuomo's long-running nursing home COVID deaths scandal, in which the governor's order that long-term care facilities take coronavirus-positive patients resulted in the deaths of thousands of nursing home residents. To make matters worse, the New York attorney general revealed that the governor's office significantly undercounted the numbers of deaths, having reported approximately 5,000 nursing home deaths when the actual figure was closer to 15,000. The governor responded by blaming nursing home workers for the staggering number of fatalities and not his failed policies.

The governor's own aide later admitted to Democratic lawmakers that Cuomo's office purposely hid the numbers in order to avoid political attacks. After state Democratic leaders called out the governor's tactics, Cuomo reportedly threatened to politically destroy at least one of them. This accusation led to multiple revelations from journalists and elected officials that bullying is "classic Andrew Cuomo."

Second, the governor now faces accusations of sexual harassment from at least three women — including forced kissing, inappropriate touching, and unwanted sexual questions — which have forced the media to actually put a spotlight on what is going on in Albany. The governor apologized for his actions during a Wednesday news conference, though he denied any inappropriate touching.

For Crosbie, enough is enough.

"What should come next for Andrew Cuomo is a swift resignation, followed by a statewide investigation," the Rolling Stone writer said.

The governor made it clear during Wednesday's presser that he would not be resigning.

"Some politicians will always play politics, right? That's the nature of the beast. I don't think today is the day for politics," Cuomo said. "I'm not going to resign."

Though Cuomo needs to go, there's a problem, Crosbie noted: He has built his career protecting himself from attacks by convincing his defenders in the media that he is indispensable to the Empire State and the U.S. Those defenders in turn minimized the accusations against Cuomo and praised the governor's work:

The Cuomo defenders have logged on, and boy do they have thoughts.

The core of the argument in Cuomo's favor ... is this: Democratic loyalists are still smarting after being forced to exile Al Franken from the Senate, and they're resentful that they may have to sacrifice another promising political leader when the GOP is more than happy to protect and enable its own sex pests, conspiracy theorists, and outright Nazis. (On Twitter, of course, that argument was reduced to incoherent babbling about how Cuomo's behavior was nothing compared to Trump, yadda yadda.)

Both versions of this point fall into the same trap, which Cuomo has spent years constructing: that he is indispensable in New York and national politics. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he has been on camera almost constantly, winning an Emmy for his original programming and booking frequent guest spots on his brother Chris Cuomo's primetime CNN show. In the waning hours of the Trump presidency, Cuomo emerged as one of the president's fiercest critics, egging on the federal and state prosecutors investigating the presidents' crooked finances, and presenting an easy foil to the chaotic mismanagement and conspiracy-mongering coming from the Oval Office.

The tactics worked: at various points in the past year, Cuomo's star rose high enough that rumors swirled about his imminent foray into national politics. Political betting markets at one point fueled rumors that the Democratic party would swap him out for Joe Biden as their 2020 presidential nominee, and were followed by reports that he was angling to be Biden's attorney general.

The truth is, according to Crosbie, that the governor's supposed leadership and strength were nothing but a "veneer" — something people who have actually followed New York politics have known for a long time.

Cuomo's power, Crosbie wrote, "rests entirely on the public delusion that having him in charge is better than the alternative."

"This is false. We do not need him," he continued. "We do not need any politician, particularly ones who have stopped serving the public interest of the people they represent."

"Andrew Cuomo is not an essential worker," Crosbie said. And like any politician who obtains power through abuse and "toxic leadership," it's "time for him to go."

Mayor Bill de Blasio says Gov. Cuomo should resign if harassment allegations are confirmed



New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio excoriated New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over various scandals afflicting his office and opined that he should resign if any were found to be true.

De Blasio made the comments to Jake Tapper on his CNN show Monday.

"We have to, we have to believe women who come forward, and fully investigate, and you know the governor issued a total non-apology earlier, and in effect treated sexual harassment as some kind of laughing matter, it's not a laughing matter, it's not a joke, it's very very serious stuff," said de Blasio.

Cuomo has been accused by a former aide of sexually harassing her in several instances. He has denied the allegation but was hit with another accusation by a second woman on Sunday who said he acted inappropriately with her as well. Also on Sunday de Blasio called for an independent investigation into the allegations against the governor.

De Blasio described the accusations as "grotesque" in his interview with Tapper.

"Think about how grotesque that is," said de Blasio. "I don't know anyone who would do that. This is not acceptable, it wasn't acceptable ever, it's especially not acceptable in 2021 in the United States of America. So it cannot be laughed off, it cannot be minimized."

He went on to hammer away at Cuomo over the unanswered questions about the thousands of deaths after the governor's order to send coronavirus patients to nursing homes for medical care.

'Disqualifying realities'

Tapper asked if Cuomo should resign if any of the scandals are confirmed against Cuomo.

"I don't see how anyone can function as a governor and have the trust of the people and the respect of the people, if they purposely covered up the deaths of thousands of our seniors, our elders, family members, beloved family members who are gone," de Blasio responded.

"If you cover that up or if you did things for reasons that had to do with politics or contributions, and if you've sexually harassed young women in your employment, these are disqualifying realities. How can anyone look the people in the face after that?" he asked.

"If these allegations or charges are proven, there's just no way he can govern," de Blasio concluded.

Here's the video of de Blasio's interview:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign if he "purposefully covered up the deaths"… https://t.co/fjpX2X7j8a
— The Lead CNN (@The Lead CNN)1614637617.0

VIDEO: Jim Acosta confronted at CPAC over CNN's coverage of Gov. Cuomo's scandals



CNN reporter Jim Acosta was confronted at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over his network's coverage of the scandals besieging Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The exchange was captured on video by Acosta's interlocutor, David Marcus, who is a columnist for The Federalist.

"Hey, Jim, I'm David Marcus from The Federalist, when are you guys going to start covering Cuomo?" Marcus said, interrupting a separate interview with Acosta.

"I'm conducting an interview," replied Acosta.

"When are you guys gonna start covering Cuomo?" asked Marcus.

Acosta said that CNN did cover the stories, but Marcus continued to pepper him with questions.

"He killed ten thousand people and he's accused of sexual assault, and you guys want to talk about [Sen.] Ted Cruz (R-Texas)," said Marcus.

Acosta offered to talk to Marcus after his interview was completed, yet Marcus persisted.

"Sir, let me just finish this interview and then I'll talk to you," said Acosta.

"No!" replied Marcus. "When are you gonna start covering it Jim? When is CNN gonna deal with Cuomo?"

"We are covering it," responded Acosta.

"No you're not, you're not!" said Marcus.

"Well, OK, we agree to disagree!" replied Acosta.

"No, we don't agree to disagree," said Marcus disagreeably. "You're not covering Cuomo!"

Marcus went on to accost him on whether he had any statement about Gov. Cuomo, but he declined.

Here's the video of the interrogation of Acosta:

Other video from the convention showed attendees surrounding Acosta and chanting, "CNN sucks!" at him.

Marcus later told The Hill that Acosta should have expected that he would face some criticism at such a conference.

"The dude walked into the lion's den," Marcus said. "That's clearly what he was doing here. And when you walk into the lion's den sometimes you gotta face the lion."

Marcus also appeared annoyed at how he was characterized in reporting of the incident.

"I'm not a f***ing reporter. I'm a columnist," he tweeted.

Former president Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the event on Sunday evening.

Here's more from Jim Acosta at CPAC:

Acosta corrects CPAC organizer: Trump did lose the electionwww.youtube.com

Mayor de Blasio demands independent investigation into 'really disturbing' sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Cuomo



Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an independent investigation into the sexual harassment allegations brought against Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo by a former aide.

Lindsey Boylan served as deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser in the Cuomo administration from March 2015 until October 2018. In December, Boylan accused Cuomo of sexually harassing her "for years," adding that he abused his power.

On Tuesday, Boylan elaborated on her claims against Cuomo in a post on Medium.

"Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected," Boylan wrote. "His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation that he liked you, that you must be doing something right. He used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences."

Boylan claimed that Cuomo asked his aides to play strip poker with him during a taxpayer-funded plane trip in 2017, inappropriately touched her, and kissed her on the lips without her consent at his New York City office.

De Blasio was asked Thursday morning about the sexual harassment accusations against the New York governor.

"Look, these allegations are really disturbing," de Blasio responded. "Let's be clear about that — they're really disturbing."

"We've gotta take this seriously," he continued. "When a woman comes forward with this kind of very specific allegation, they have to be taken seriously. We need a full and independent investigation. I want to emphasize the word independent."

De Blasio stressed that the investigation must be conducted "by some individual or entity that is not compromised, is not something that is dominated by the governor's office, but an independent investigation."

"This is just unacceptable. This kind of behavior, if it's true, is unacceptable in any public servant, in anybody," de Blasio said. "So we gotta get the truth about this."

BREAKING: De Blasio calls for investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo www.youtube.com

Cuomo has denied the allegations. The governor's office released a statement on Wednesday, challenging Boylan's plane allegations.

"As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false," Cuomo's office said.

"In Ms. Boylan's latest blog post, she opens up with a story about a plane trip in October 2017 — the manifests of all flights from October 2017 can be found below — there was no flight where Lindsey was alone with the Governor, a single press aide, and a NYS Trooper," the statement reads.

Last week, de Blasio called for a blue-ribbon panel to investigate Cuomo's handling of nursing homes and long-term care facilities during the coronavirus pandemic and accusations that his administration intentionally underreported nursing home deaths.

"This whole thing has to be examined. We need the full truth," the mayor said last week.

"It's extraordinarily troubling on a human level because we don't even know what it would've meant — how many lives might've been saved if things had been done differently," de Blasio said of Cuomo's leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We need a full investigation, independent investigation of what happened with the nursing homes, what happened with the thousands of people who died," de Blasio said on Thursday's press briefing.

"Their families have not gotten answers," he added. "We don't understand if truth was told or not. We know information was not given on a timely basis, we know mistakes were made, we know that we have not had an accounting that tells us how to saves lives going forward, and change the approach to nursing homes."

The FBI and the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office have launched investigations into the nursing home scandal.

There is no love lost between Cuomo and de Blasio, and it was evident during an MSNBC interview last week. De Blasio blasted Cuomo as a "bully."

"The threats, the belittling, the demand that someone change their statement right that moment — many, many times I've heard that and I know a lot of other people in the state that have heard that," de Blasio said of Cuomo.

Woman who worked as Andrew Cuomo's press secretary claims he is the 'master' of 'penis politics'



Karen Hinton once worked as a press secretary for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and according to the onetime aide, they were less-than-great experiences.

In fact, Hinton claims that the Democratic politicos are guilty of practicing what she calls "penis politics."

And by Hinton's calculations, no one has ever been better at it than Cuomo — though de Blasio did his best to create an office atmosphere where men exerted power over women.

What has Hinton claimed?

Hinton, who is writing a book about men dominating women in politics, penned an op-ed Wednesday for the New York Daily News and recounted her experience working for Cuomo during his tenure as HUD secretary under President Bill Clinton.

It turns out that Cuomo's reputation as a bully — which was recently brought to the fore following accusations that he threatened a state lawmaker for daring to call out his "BS" regarding the state's ongoing nursing home COVID death scandal — is warranted, if Hinton's claims are to be believed.

She began her op-ed saying she had spent her life in politics, "a field where power and ambition drive both sexes, but take on a particular dynamic for women working for men."

In her experience, Cuomo's "penchant for bullying" isn't unusual in politics — it's the norm — but Cuomo is unique in how good he is at "penis politics":

The recent spate of stories about Gov. Cuomo's penchant for bullying isn't about behavior that's unusual in politics. It's the norm. Andrew, with whom I had a decades-long professional relationship, isn't the only practitioner of what I call “penis politics." He just happens to be the master of the art ...

According to Hinton, Cuomo gave her a job during his days in Washington, D.C., and then "worked to undermine" her and dominate her daily:

Day to day, he made me feel as if I were no good at my job and thus totally dependent on him to keep it. In Cuomo's world — and he would never admit this even to himself — working for him is like a 1950′s version of marriage. He always, always, always comes first. Everyone and everything else — your actual spouse, your children, your own career goals — is secondary. Your focus 24 hours a day is on him.

If you need more time with your own family, he will treat you like you are cheating on him. If you have your eye on another, better job, he'll try to make that job disappear. Escaping Cuomo is tough because he has to exercise total control.

And de Blasio wasn't much better on the "penis politics" front — he just practiced a different "brand" of it, she said.

Hinton said Hizzoner's "signature move" was to "dig in on an untenable position" that was bound to lose and then attack staffers who attempted to dissuade him from his bad ideas, treating them with "condescension" — especially if those staffers were women. De Blasio's office, she said, had a habit of interrupting women more and listening to them less.

"By the end of his first term, the mayor had lost twice as many senior officials who were women than men," she wrote, linking to a New York Times story detailing de Blasio's lousy record retaining female employees.

It appears that the two leading Democrats in the Empire State — who are known adversaries — have more in common than they would like to admit, at least judging by Hinton's retelling:

While they had different styles, both Cuomo and de Blasio had one thing in common. Like many powerful men in politics, they create a public image as champions of women's rights and equality. Behind closed doors, they use gender domination as one means to assert their power over women.

According to Hinton, for Cuomo and de Blasio, their "penis politics" are just "second nature."

New York journalist says Gov. Cuomo 'terrorized' him for daring to do his job, challenges reporters to 'tell their own Cuomo stories'



Anyone following the growing nursing home COVID death scandal swirling around New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has likely heard about the governor's reported habit of threatening people who cross him.

Cuomo's alleged bullying tactics gained attention when New York state Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat, accused the governor of personally threatening him last week for calling out the governor's "BS" surrounding the nursing home cover-up.

Following Kim's accusation, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, came out and said the lawmaker's allegation was "not a surprise."

"It's a sad thing to say, Mika, but that's classic Andrew Cuomo," de Blasio told MSNBC last week. "A lot of people in New York state have received those phone calls."

"The bullying is nothing new," de Blasio said, adding, "The threats, the belittling, the demand that someone change their statement right that moment — many, many times I've heard that and I know a lot of other people in the state that have heard that."

Now one New York journalist has gone on the record accusing Cuomo's office of bullying him during his time as editor of a magazine covering New York politics and saying that this is a pattern of behavior for the executive.

In a new op-ed for the New York Post titled "Cuomo's office terrorized me for doing my job as a journalist," former City & State editor-in-chief Morgan Pehme recounted an incident he claims took place in April 2014 when his magazine was prepared to run a story that the governor didn't like.

Pehme began his tale of Cuomo woe:

It was 4:30 a.m., so I pulled the bathroom door shut in my one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment to answer the phone without waking my then-5-year-old. On the line was Melissa DeRosa, Gov. Cuomo's then-communications director, now his second-in-command. She was threatening to destroy me.

By now, thanks to Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim blowing the whistle on the threats he received in a call from Cuomo, the public has a glimpse of the bullying practiced by the governor and his top brass.

Many Americans are shocked, having bought into the compassionate persona Cuomo conveyed in his pandemic briefings. But Kim's revelations came as no surprise to anyone who has dealt with the governor. As one Albany insider texted me last week, “everyone has an Andrew Cuomo story."

The onetime editor said his publication was going to expose Cuomo's efforts to distort a report on public corruption — a report for which Pehme's magazine got pushback from Cuomo's office the minute the outlet began digging.

Though he cannot quote exactly what the governor's office threatened him with, Pehme said he knows that a promise to "destroy" his career and get revenge was included in the threats.

And the fear he experienced was warranted, he added, considering Cuomo's "track record of vindictiveness":

I had no reason to think these were idle threats. I was fully aware of the governor's volcanic temper and track record of vindictiveness. If he wanted to crush me, he could and likely would.

This was a serious gut check for me. I worried about losing my livelihood, damaging my future, letting down my wife and daughter. But fortunately, I had bosses and colleagues who stood by the quality of our work. So we published the piece, like the press is supposed to do in the face of intimidation.

According to Pehme, "abusive calls" from the governor's office or the governor himself are regular fare for the Albany press corps:

[T]he abuse he privately metes out amounts to a systematic campaign to chill negative coverage of his administration. And it works.

Editors kill legitimate stories because of his threats; reporters shy away from promising tips; sources stay silent.

There are many reasons the media don't expose the governor's bullying. Albany reporters fear that if the governor freezes them out, they won't be able to do their jobs effectively. Some journalists see speaking up as a violation of the unwritten code of “off-the-record" conversations. Others just assume that “everyone knows" how Cuomo operates, so it isn't worth reporting.

Pehme closed his piece urging journalists to do their jobs and report the truth about Cuomo — just as they did when the #MeToo movement uncovered abusive "monsters" in the entertainment industry.

"Journalists are agents of accountability," he wrote. "It's time for New York's reporters to step up and tell their own Cuomo stories."

New York state Democratic Party committee members launch resolution to censure Gov. Cuomo over nursing home scandal



New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been facing increased bipartisan heat from lawmakers in the Empire State over his growing nursing home scandal.

Republican lawmakers have proposed an impeachment commission to toss Cuomo from the governor's mansion after he purposefully underreported and hid the true number of COVID-related deaths in New York nursing homes that came as a result of his order to send coronavirus patients to long-term care facilities.

Democratic lawmakers have accused Cuomo of obstruction of justice over the nursing home reporting scandal, the New York Post said. And a significant number of legislative Democrats have joined their GOP counterparts in pushing legislation to curb Cuomo's emergency powers.

Now, the governor's political headache is getting worse.

Following reports that Cuomo threatened a Democratic lawmaker for daring to call out his "BS" surrounding the scandal — a tactic that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called "classic Andrew Cuomo" — eleven elected members of the state Democratic Party submitted a resolution to censure the governor, the Post reported Monday.

The censure resolution, according to the Post, lays out several reasons for the rebuke, including:

  • Undercounting nursing home COVID deaths by 50%, a fact that was not revealed until the New York attorney general released a report of her own investigation;
  • Cuomo “repeatedly stymied and refused" to hand over information about the nursing home deaths to state lawmakers, and his office admitted that the cover-up was done to protect political interests;
  • The governor “personally and inappropriately threatened" lawmakers who dared to call out the cover-up; and
  • Cuomo “sought to deceive the public, the legislature, and the U.S. DOJ and frame the issue as one of partisan politics rather than a genuine concern" and has failed to take responsibility for his order that nursing homes take coronavirus patients.

The 11 party leaders had no kind words to offer the governor.

One of those leaders, state committee member Emilia Decaudin, said it was time to hold the governor accountable for his actions.

“Actions have consequences," Decaudin said, according to the Post. "I consider it my responsibility as a representative of the Democrats in my community to hold members of our party accountable, from City Council up to the Governor. The continued wrong doing of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo must be repudiated, or else we are no better than the Republicans who fail to hold their own leaders accountable, out of fear and self-preservation."

Another committee member, Patrick Nelson, also went after the governor's lack of integrity, saying, "Honesty, dignity, respect and the wellbeing of our state and country must always come before party allegiance. When a member of the Democratic Party does wrong, we seek to ensure that they are held accountable no matter how powerful they are, unlike in the Republican Party."

The censure language also attacked Cuomo's decision to write a book on leadership that praised himself on the handling of the pandemic — while hiding the nursing home data — the Post reported:

During this entire ordeal where the governor claims to not have had time and human resources to comply with requests for information, the governor did have time to write a book congratulating himself for New York's COVID-19 response, have a self-congratulatory poster created and circulated before the worst of the pandemic was over.

But Cuomo likely has little to worry about. State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs told the Post the censure resolution from a very small handful of the 450 state party committee members won't go anywhere.

"There will always be those who will see an opportunity to try to enhance their own relevance," Jacobs said. "I don't care for this opportunistic action at the state committee."

Commentary: Why won't Dr. Fauci speak up about Gov. Cuomo's ongoing nursing home scandal?



With Joe Biden safely inaugurated, Anthony Fauci found the earliest opportunity he could to troll his old boss, Donald Trump.

"The idea that you can get up here and … let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling," Fauci said.

Oh, really?

Because "liberated" isn't how Fauci seemed when asked to comment earlier this week on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's increasingly obvious culpability in sentencing thousands of nursing home and long-term care residents to their deaths during the COVID-19 crisis' early days and then repeatedly lying about it.

Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa finally flat-out admitted to state lawmakers this month — almost a year after Cuomo's mistakes needlessly began to fill body bags — that data on the number of deaths in such facilities was purposely underreported by more than 6,000 people in order to minimize potential fallout in the press.

So go ahead, Dr. Fauci. By all means, liberate the science for all of us plebes.

"I can't," Fauci said. "I mean, I'm sorry. I'm really — I'm honestly not trying to evade your question, but I'm not really sure of all the details of that, and I think if I make a statement, it probably could either be incorrect or taken out of context. So, I prefer not to comment on that."

Weird.

To paraphrase the great philosopher Inigo Montoya, I don't think "liberate" means what Fauci thinks it means. He seems to be confusing it with "deception." Or "cowardice." Or "douchebag."

I also don't think a man who is up to his eyeballs in funding research in Wuhan, China, itself — the very birthplace of COVID-19 — can get away with saying he doesn't have a clue what is going on in his own home state as it was ravaged as hard by a virus as any other place on earth.

Furthermore, among Cuomo's defenses for his state's nursing home disaster in 2020 was that he was merely following federal guidelines. Now how would a guy like Cuomo, who seems aggressively prone to doing whatever he wants whenever he wants to, suddenly feel it would be a compelling narrative to play the victim card?

Maybe because Fauci, who has ultimately ended up on both sides of nearly every major COVID-related policy discussion since February 2020, very publicly came to Cuomo's defense in July by insisting New York "did it correctly" when it came to battling COVID-19.

It was such a successful endorsement by Fauci in the eyes of those who have birthed a cult around him that when December came along, Cuomo and Fauci were invited by the press to ham it up together and appoint themselves the "modern-day De Niro and Pacino" of virus fighters.

Those two rascals. It's as if they've been friends forever. Maybe because, you know, they've been friends forever.

Back in May, Gov. Cuomo's brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, received daily phone calls from Fauci after he supposedly contracted COVID-19, then proceeded to hack the light fantastic from his televised basement during his quarantine. The calls were the kind of thing you do, Fauci said, when you've known the Cuomos since Chris "was almost a kid."

So with all of this connective tissue, is the 80-year-old Fauci really going to get away with a version of "I'm old and don't remember things so well, can I have a blanket and some warm soup, please?" while still being the most highly paid official in the federal government?

What absurdity will finally help you understand that if Cuomo is guilty, Fauci was always driving the getaway car? Because when Cuomo published a book in the middle of the pandemic subtitled "Leadership Lessons," Fauci didn't immediately diagnose the governor's tall tale as even more ridiculous than the doctor's first pitch at the Mets game.

Nor did Fauci take umbrage with Cuomo winning an actual Emmy for his daily propaganda briefings, but he did throw a hissy fit when then-President Trump ran a campaign ad featuring Fauci's own words — "I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more" — about the performance of the Trump administration's White House coronavirus task force.

"In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate," Fauci complained. "The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context."

Let's check the Fauci scoreboard, shall we? Letting Cuomo wash the blood from his hands 1, admitting Trump wasn't actually Hitler 0.

The bottom line is that Fauci isn't so much an "expert" at picking fights with the virus he is charged with defeating as he is with ambushing those like Rand Paul who aren't interested in tyrannically rubbing out life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Which is why he and Cuomo get along so well.

This week's latest depravity concerning Cuomo is that he called New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim — a fellow Democrat whose uncle is believed to have died from COVID-19 in a New York nursing home — to threaten Kim's career for publicly criticizing him.

"He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience," Kim said, adding that Cuomo told him that "we're in this business together and we don't cross certain lines and he said I hadn't seen his wrath and that he can destroy me."

To which Fauci can be imagined responding at this point: "Need any help?"