Former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has announced a return to politics, per a new video posted online on Thursday.
“I am starting a new political action committee to elect the right people to office. We do not need more panderers, we need producers,” Cuomo said in the video, which was posted on Vimeo by Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s longtime aide. He also said he was starting the “Gun Safe America project,” which he said he would address later, adding that “I do not believe our federal government has the courage or capacity to make real progress.”
Let’s do it, let’s do it together.https://t.co/MIXwqEjqTE
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) September 28, 2022
Cuomo’s announcement of new political activity comes over a year after he resigned in disgrace on Aug. 23, 2021. In 2020 and 2021, Cuomo was accused by several women – including his former aides, political consultants, and a State Police trooper assigned to his protective detail – of sexual harassment, prompting an investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office.
The investigation’s report, published in August of that year, alleged that Cuomo had sexually harrassed 11 women by touching them without their consent, breaking state and federal law while doing so. Authorities in five New York counties then began criminal investigations into Cuomo for his conduct.
Cuomo began to face calls to resign from office, including from leading Democrats such as President Joe Biden, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The State Assembly authorized its judiciary committee to begin an impeachment investigation of Cuomo, while many legislators publicly announced they would vote to impeach him as governor.
He was ultimately not indicted on any charge of sexual harassment, though some prosecutors blamed the technical requirements of state law for the decision while claiming that “credible evidence” existed that the alleged acts had occurred. One criminal complaint, filed by the Albany County District Attorney, was dismissed by a state judge in January.
Cuomo was also the focus of a scandal regarding his administration’s response to COVID-19. Investigations by the State Assembly and the Attorney General’s office found that he had ordered staff to significantly undercount the COVID-19 mortality rate of nursing home patients, resulting in them continuing to be admitted there.
They also alleged that Cuomo sought to prevent nursing home executives, many of whom were his political donors, from lawsuits. The FBI later announced that it was investigating these actions.
In the video, Cuomo says that he’s been “spending time on life,” since resigning before moving on to criticize the current state of politics, with a specific focus on political discourse.
“Social media has created a political Roman Coliseum that encourages the loud and the mean and the outrageous,” he said, while also lamenting cancel culture and claiming that “the mob” was intimidating the media from reporting the truth.
Cuomo further listed a series of problems facing America, such as “inflation through the roof, gas prices skyrocketing, the stock market plummeting, crime and homelessness worse than ever in many cities, disaster in Puerto Rico, [and] what’s going on in Ukraine, China and North Korea,” adding that “the government isn’t doing enough.”
“I’ve seen a lot, I’ve learned a lot, I’ve done a lot – and I want to help,” he said.
Cuomo and Azzopardi did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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