New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday accused Governor Andrew Cuomo of being “in the way” of saving lives by defying calls to resign over his handling of the state’s CCP virus response and the mounting sexual harassment allegations against him.
Cuomo, 63, has been accused of harassment by at least seven women, some of whom are former aides. He has also been under fire for withholding COVID-19 death data from state lawmakers and the public.
“He should resign right now because he’s holding up our effort to fight COVID,” de Blasio, a Democrat told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “He’s literally in the way of us saving lives right now.”
In January, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, published a report that found that the state under-counted nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent, while The New York Post later reported that one of Cuomo’s aides, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to lawmakers in a private setting that the administration hid nursing home data last summer due to a federal probe.
The mayor last week called for Cuomo to resign, supporting a growing chorus of calls for the governor to leave office. By Friday, Cuomo had lost the backing of almost the entire 29-member state congressional delegation and a majority of Democrats in the state legislature.
More than 55 Democratic New York legislators signed a letter on Thursday calling for Cuomo’s resignation.
The three-term governor has so far brushed off calls to resign, blaming “cancel culture” for the calls to step down.
“People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth. Let the review proceed. I’m not going to resign,” Cuomo said in a conference call on Friday, urging people wait for independent probes to be conducted.
De Blasio on Sunday accused Cuomo of covering up the number of nursing home deaths in the state to protect his public image.
“I don’t have a doubt in my mind,” the mayor said, when asked if Cuomo deliberately attempted to cover up nursing home deaths in New York.
“Everything was about his public image,” de Blasio told host Margaret Brennan. “Everything was about his political future. It was not about what people needed. And by the way, it was about campaign contributions.”
The mayor suggested that the probes into Cuomo’s handling of the the state’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus response will show he acted in the benefit of his political backers.
“The nursing home industry, the big hospital systems, they gave him millions and millions of dollars, and he went easy on them. And he tried to cover up for everyone. Not just him but his donors. And I think the investigations are going to prove this, Margaret. This was a thoroughly corrupt situation, and he just needs to resign so we can actually turn the page,” he continued.
De Blasio said he believes an impeachment proceeding against Cuomo will soon begin if he continues to refuse to resign.
“I think he is used to getting things his way, and it’s been almost an imperial governorship. But I got to tell you, the folks in this state and the political leadership don’t believe him anymore,” the mayor said. “He doesn’t have any credibility so I think an impeachment proceeding will begin and I think he will be impeached and perhaps right before that he’ll decide to resign. That’s probably the most likely outcome right now.”
“Andrew Cuomo can’t lead us into the future,” de Blasio added. “We got the people of the state ready to reopen, but we got to get him out of the way to do it.”
Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
