Even with several investigations revolving around him, Governor Cuomo is becoming more challenging, according to sources.
“He is not resigning. There was no idea that he would resign, ”said a source. “There is no justification for the resignation. There is no positive side.
“He’s a crisis guy. He was always like that. It’s who he is. Crisis brings out the best in him. “
As Cuomo struggles, employees are losing faith, said a source informed of talks inside the executive office this week.
“There is a feeling among the team, ‘How long can you buy time before the next story is released?’ And that is clearly what it is – a tactic to see how long you can run out of time, ”said the source.
As officials defect, Cuomo is isolated by his closest confidants and most loyal allies, including his three daughters and black community leaders – and is taking the advice of the person he believes best knows New York voters: himself.
Even when he appeared to be approaching his political death sentence last week, with appeals from the Democrats Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to resign, Cuomo remained energized.
“Schumer and Gillibrand’s change did not impact thinking at all. Politicians and voters are in very different places now. ”Said the insider.
In the eyes of his critics, this egocentric thought is what put him in the hotseat.
“’Business as usual’ is the problem, not the solution. ‘Business as usual’ is what led Governor Andrew Cuomo to sexually harass Charlotte Bennett and seven other women, ”said Deborah Katz, Bennett’s lawyer, 25-year-old Cuomo’s aide who said the governor nudged her with questions about her sex life inside the governor’s mansion last year and declared that he would date women as young as 22.
“Governor Cuomo can hide from the questions as much as he wants and can try to stack the impeachment investigation [by the state Assembly] in your favor, but the truth will come. The Attorney General’s independent investigation will show that Andrew Cuomo has a long and unacceptable history of surrounding himself with facilitators who allow him to sexually harass young women who are trying to work in the public service. ”
Meanwhile, Cuomo tried to use his isolation as a virtue.
“Part of that is that I am not part of the political club. And you know what? I am proud of that, ”said Cuomo last Friday.
Although the statement was widely ridiculed by political observers who note that Cuomo is a career politician, starting with his first job working for his father, the late Governor Mario Cuomo, strategists say the position is true.
“Politicians do not like him, and that is just a crescendo of events. He was able to incite the passions of the right and the left. They are waiting for the right time to eat and kill him, ”said veteran strategist Hank Sheinkopf.
Although his friends are abundant, few pols are more adept at influencing voter sentiment than Cuomo, experts noted.
“The man was elected four times by the state of New York. He knows what people in New York want from him. He is perfectly in tune with what they need during this crisis, ”explained the source.
A poll released on Monday suggested that Cuomo’s thinking about the constituency seemed to be true. Half of those interviewed by Siena College said the governor should not resign.
“It’s not surprising – especially when a poll comes out and says 50 percent I don’t want him to resign – let him think ‘I can convince voters. I only care about the voters, not the politicians. That is the message now. So he’ll hold on until things start to change in the polls, ”said a second source familiar with the governor’s thinking.
But on Thursday, a poll from Quinnipiac University showed that 43% of voters believe he should resign, compared to 35% who said so in Siena’s poll on Monday.
Cuomo continued his strategy of nothing to see here throughout the week.
The public last heard from him about the sexual harassment charges on March 12, and he said on Wednesday that he would not address them again pending the impeachment investigation.
Instead, he relied on key electoral blocks and tangible examples of progress that are easy for voters to digest – infrastructure projects and the vaccine effort, explained strategists and experts.
He received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem on Wednesday – a photo opportunity where reporters were barred.
“It’s very simple – it’s’ the show must go on, and to hell with everyone else. He won’t budge. He will not cringe. It will not show weakness. He will go back to what he knows how to do, which is to make the show continue at any cost, ”observed Sheinkopf.
Despite the business strategy as usual, reports of the governor’s more brutal behavior continued throughout the week.
On Friday, The New Yorker reported that Cuomo once joked that he would try to “assemble” his former assistant and first accuser Lindsey Boylan, if he were a dog.
Later on Friday, a current aide filed new allegations of sexual harassment and a cover-up led by Cuomo to hide another employee’s accusations that he palpated her inside the governor’s mansion last year.
President Biden for the first time commented on the accusations on Wednesday, but did not actually call for Cuomo’s immediate removal. He said he should resign if the charges prove to be true.
Sheinkopf said that if the country’s main Dem comes out against him, it will be the final nail in Cuomo’s coffin.
“I think Biden’s response could have been – it could still be – very damaging.”