Even with multiple investigations revolving around him, Cuomo’s government is becoming more challenging, according to sources.
“He’s not resigning. There was no idea he would resign, ” said one insider. “There is no reason to resign. There is no upside.
“He’s a crisis man. He has always been that way. This is who he is. Crisis brings out the best in him. ”
As Cuomo digs in, staff members lose confidence, a source told the executive office this week.
‘There is a feeling among the staff of‘ how long are you able to buy time until the next story appears? “And it’s clear what it is – a tactic to see how long you can run out of the clock,” the source said.
As staff members defect, Cuomo is isolated by his closest confidants and strongest allies, including his three daughters and leaders in the Black community – and take advice from the person he believes knows New York voters best: himself.
Although he apparently approached his political death throes last week, with the calls of the Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to retire, Cuomo remained energetic.
‘The move by Schumer and Gillibrand did not affect the thinking at all. The politicians and the voters are in different places at the moment. Said the inner circle.
In the eyes of his critics is such an egocentric thinking that landed him on the hot seat.
” As usual ‘is the problem, not the solution. “Business as usual” led Governor Andrew Cuomo to sexually harass Charlotte Bennett and seven other women, “said Deborah Katz, a lawyer for Bennett, Cuomo’s former 25-year-old assistant, who asked her questions. about her. sex life in the mansion’s governor last year and declared he would date women as young as 22.
“Cuomo’s government can hide everything he wants, and he can try to investigate the accusation. [by the state Assembly] in his favor, but the truth will come out. The Attorney General’s independent investigation will show that Andrew Cuomo has a long and unacceptable record of turning himself in with enablers who will enable him to sexually harass young women trying to work in the public service. ”
Cuomo, meanwhile, tried to play his isolation as a virtue.
” Part of this is that I’m not part of the political club. And you know what? I am proud of that, “Cuomo said last Friday.
While the statement has been widely ridiculed by political viewers who have remarked that Cuomo is a career politician, he is starting his first job with his father, the late ruler Mario Cuomo, and strategists say there is truth in the position.
“The politicians do not like him, and this is just a summary of events. He could incite the passions from right as well as left. “They were waiting for the right moment to eat him up and kill him,” said veteran strategist Hank Sheinkopf.
While his frenemies abound, there are few policies that are more adept at swaying voter sentiment than Cuomo, insiders said.
The man was elected four times by the state of New York. He knows what people in New York want from him. He is uniquely focused on what they need during this crisis, “the informant explained.
In a poll released on Monday, it was suggested that Cuomo’s thinking about the voting public was true. Half of the people interviewed by Siena College said the governor should not resign.
‘It’s not surprising – especially not if a poll shows that 50 percent say does not want him to resign – that he thinks’ I can convince the voters. All I care about are the voters, not the politicians. “That’s the message now. He will therefore continue until things start to turn in the ballot boxes, “said a second source familiar with the governor’s thinking.
But by Thursday, a poll by Quinnipiac University showed that 43 percent of voters believe he should resign, compared to the 35 percent who said so in the Siena poll Monday.
Cuomo continued his nothing-to-see-here strategy throughout the week.
The public last heard from him on March 12 about the allegations of sexual harassment, and he said Wednesday he will not address it again pending the indictment.
Instead, it relies on key ballots and tangible examples of progress that voters can easily digest – infrastructure projects and the vaccine effort, strategists and informants explained.
He received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Wednesday at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem – a photo where reporters were excluded.
“He’s really simple – that’s’ the show should go on, and with everyone else. He’s not going to give in. He’s not going to bend. He’s not going to show weakness. He will go back to what he knows how to do, what keeps the show going, regardless of the cost, ”Sheinkopf remarks.
Despite the strategy used as usual, the governor continued reports of more brutal behavior throughout the week.
On Friday, The New Yorker reported that Cuomo once joked that he would try to “save” his former assistant and first accuser Lindsey Boylan, if he were a dog.
Later Friday, a current assistant came forward with new allegations of sexual harassment and a cover-up led by Cuomo to hide the accusations of another staff member that he touched her in the governor’s mansion last year.
President Biden commented on the allegations for the first time on Wednesday, but did not stop requesting Cuomo’s immediate removal. He said he should resign if the accusations are true.
Sheinkopf said if the country’s leading Dem faced him, it would be the last nail in Cuomo’s coffin.
“I think the Biden reaction could have been very damaging – could still be.”