ALBANY (TNS) — New York will be better for this. Andrew Cuomo had to go.
No matter what you think of the man or his politics, the governor and his many scandals had paralyzed state government. His continued malevolence, moreover, was a storm cloud New York needed to escape.
When Kathy Hochul takes over, the air around the Capitol will feel lighter and the mood will improve. From all we know about the state’s lieutenant governor, she will be a stylistic departure from the governor. If nothing else, she lacks his vindictiveness and hubris.
In a column published Tuesday, I predicted Cuomo’s political career was over but thought he would drag out the fight. He wouldn’t, in other words, do what was best for New York. He lacked shame, I said, and would make the next few months as ugly as possible.
So yes, I was surprised by the sudden announcement of his resignation, coming in 14 days. Most observers of politics in New York were, I think. The move seems out of character for a governor who so highly values punching and fighting.
Did we, perhaps, misjudge the man? After all, in the 21-minute video announcing the resignation, Cuomo said he was stepping down because avoiding the ugliness of impeachment was the right thing to do.
“Wasting money on distractions is the last thing that government should be doing,” the Democrat said. “I cannot be the cause of that.”
But notice what was missing from Cuomo’s statement: Remorse. Contrition. Shame.
Cuomo continued to cast himself as the victim, a misunderstood martyr who never meant to offend the 11 women the Office of the Attorney General found he sexually harassed. He offered no real apology for their treatment, just as he expressed no regret for his hiding of nursing home deaths or any of the other scandals swirling around him.
Instead, he once again described his downfall as the result of dirty politics and unfair bias. The conclusions of the investigation overseen by Attorney General Letitia James were “false,” he claimed, and “without credible factual basis.”
Don’t believe it. Cuomo deserves this fate and has only himself to blame.
The 165-page report is incredibly detailed in its descriptions of the governor’s abhorrent behavior. It shows that the women who accused him are credible while the claims from Cuomo and his closest allies were often not. It is, in a word, damning.
Nobody made Cuomo behave so poorly, just as nobody made him hide the true number of nursing home deaths. Nobody else is to blame for the VIP COVID-19 testing program that benefited his brother and other family members. The governor is the guy who had his employees work on a book for which he was so handsomely paid.
I could name other scandals, but you get the point. Cuomo is not the victim here, no matter how much he may wish it so. He’s not a hero resigning because he cares so deeply about what’s best for New York. If there were a path for his survival, he would be walking it.
But there wasn’t. His career was over.
Cuomo’s resignation is particularly remarkable when we consider how high he was flying last summer. He was the supposed hero of the pandemic then, sunshine amid the dark national scene. A future president, perhaps.
That it all came crashing down so quickly is a testament to Cuomo’s hubris and vanity, his malevolence and dishonesty, among other deep character flaws long known in Albany. Cuomo always had great political skills and an innate understanding of how to manipulate power — but in the end, his character was his destiny.
Only Cuomo could make a resignation speech sound like a campaign announcement, and a viewer who happened to catch only the end of Tuesday’s video might have thought the governor was announcing, say, a presidential run. Cuomo in 2024?
Indeed, the governor talked at length about how New York had been ambushed by COVID-19 but had fought back to squelch the pandemic. “No one thought we could do it,” he claimed. Excelsior!
It was as if Cuomo wanted to go back and return to the moment when he was most admired.
It was as if the governor hoped to erase the months of accusation and scandal that followed, reversing the long slide that led to his resigning in disgrace.
But there’s no going back, of course. It’s over for Andrew Cuomo now. Bring on Kathy Hochul.
(Chris Churchill is a columnist for the Times Union of Albany, N.Y.)
