Even with multiple investigations swirling around him, Governor Cuomo is becoming challenging, according to sources.
‘He’s not quitting. There is no idea he would step down, ”said an insider. ‘There is no reason to resign. There is no benefit.
‘He is a crisis man. He has always been like that. It’s who he is. Crisis brings out the best in him. “
As Cuomo digs in, executives are losing confidence, a source briefed this week on talks within the executive office.
“There is a feeling among the staff of ‘how long can you buy time before the next story comes out?’ And that’s clearly what this is – a tactic to see how long you can run out of the clock, ”said the source.
When personnel fail, Cuomo is isolated by his closest confidants and closest allies, including his three daughters and leaders in the black community – and takes advice from the person he thinks knows New York voters best: himself.
Even as he seemed to be approaching his political deathblow last week, with calls from the Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to step down, Cuomo remained energetic.
“The move of Schumer and Gillibrand did not affect thinking at all. Politicians and voters are currently in very different places. said the insider.
In the eyes of his critics, this self-centered thinking is what landed him on the hot seat.
“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, a lawyer for Bennett, Cuomo’s former 25-year-old aide who said the governor asked her about her. urged. sex life in the governor’s house last year and stated that he would date women from the age of 22.
Gov. Cuomo can hide anything he wants from question and he can try to stack the impeachment investigation [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 track record of surrounding himself with actors who will enable him to sexually harass young women attempting to work in the public service. ”
Cuomo, meanwhile, has tried to play his isolation as a virtue.
“Part of this is that I am not part of the political club. And you know what? I’m proud of it, ”said Cuomo last Friday.
While the statement was widely derided by political onlookers who comment that Cuomo is a career politician, starting with his first job with his father, the late Governor Mario Cuomo, strategists say the position is true.
‘The politicians don’t like him, and this is just a crescendo of events. He has been able to arouse the passions of both the right and the left. They waited for the right time to eat him and kill him, ”said veteran strategist Hank Sheinkopf.
While his enemies abound, few are more adept at the art of swaying voter sentiment than Cuomo, insiders noted.
“The man has been elected four times by the State of New York. He knows what people in New York want from him. It is uniquely tailored to what they need during this crisis, ”the insider explained.
A poll released Monday suggested that the Cuomo’s thinking regarding the voting public was correct. Half of the Siena College respondents said the governor should not resign.
“It’s not surprising – especially when there is an opinion poll that says 50 percent doesn’t want him to resign – think, ‘I can convince the voters. All I care about is the voters, not the politicians. That is the message now. So he will hold on until things start to change in the polls, ”said a second source familiar with the governor’s thinking.
But on Thursday, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 43 percent of voters think he should resign, compared to the 35 percent who said so in the Siena poll on Monday.
Cuomo continued his don’t-see-here strategy throughout the week.
The public last heard from him about the sexual harassment allegations on March 12, and he said on Wednesday that he would not address them again pending the impeachment investigation.
Instead, he leaned on key ballots and tangible examples of progress voters can easily digest – infrastructure projects and the vaccination efforts, strategists and insiders explained.
He received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at Harlem’s Mount Neboh Baptist Church on Wednesday – a photo excluding reporters.
‘He’s very simple – it’s’ the show has to go on, and go to hell with everyone else. He won’t budge. He will not cringe. He will not show weakness. He’s going back to what he knows how to do, which is to keep the show going at all costs, ” noted Sheinkopf.
Despite the business-as-usual strategy, reports of bolder behavior from the governor continued throughout the week.
On Friday, The New Yorker reported that Cuomo once joked that he would try to “mount” his former assistant and first prosecutor Lindsey Boylan if he were a dog.
Later on Friday, a current assistant came forward with new allegations of sexual harassment and a cover-up led by Cuomo to hide another staffer’s allegations that he had groped her in the governor’s house last year.
President Biden first commented on the allegations on Wednesday but did not call for Cuomo’s immediate removal. He said he would have to step down if the charges prove to be true.
Sheinkopf said if the best Dem in the country comes out against him, it would be the last nail in Cuomo’s coffin.
“I think Biden’s response could have been very damaging – still could be.”