Coronavirus, Misconduct Allegations Take Toll on Andrew Cuomo

After enjoying political reinvention at the outset of the pandemic just a year ago, the New York governor now faces arguably the most serious political crisis of his long career.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrives to a COVID-19 vaccination site in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 22. Federal prosecutors are investigating Cuomo's coronavirus task force.

For another politician, it might be called a fall from grace. Though "grace," watchers of New York politics note, has not been a word typically attached to the famously combative New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, now under fire for his handling of nursing home coronavirus cases and allegations of sexual harassment.

After enjoying a sort of political reinvention with his much-praised daily briefings during the first part of the pandemic, Cuomo is facing arguably the most serious political crisis of his long career in government service.

Federal prosecutors are investigating Cuomo's coronavirus task force, a development that came after a Cuomo administration acknowledgment that they had downplayed the deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes out of fear that the Trump administration would use it against them. Cuomo had already weathered criticism last year when he barred nursing homes from refusing residents just because they had COVID-19, a move he made to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed. He reversed the March 2020 order two months later.

Now, the 63-year-old Cuomo is fighting allegations of sexual harassment made by two women who each once worked for his administration. The state attorney general is investigating it. And Cuomo – who in what now seems like eons ago was enjoying widespread acclaim for his handling of the pandemic – on Sunday issued an apology.

Or it was sort of an apology, emblematic of a man whose aggressive and abrupt style has resulted in few political friends on either side of the aisle.

"I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended," Cuomo said in his statement.

The governor used to hold daily briefings on the pandemic, offering detailed information and an Empire State pep talk telling New Yorkers they are "tough, smart, united, disciplined and loving." That in itself was a deviation from previous interaction with the press, and it worked to Cuomo's advantage.

Now it's been a week since Cuomo held a presser – the longest stretch in more than a year, observers note.

Were Cuomo more affable or glad-handing – as opposed to the man associates over the decades have described as arrogant and bullying to the point of abusive – he might have some lawmakers stand by him in defense. But Cuomo has been left largely alone to deal with his troubles, as even fellow Democrats are piling on.

"You are a monster, and it is time for you to go. Now," tweeted Democratic state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, chairwoman of the body's Ethics & Internal Governance Committee.

State Assemblyman Ron Kim said Cuomo has bullied and threatened him over a quote Kim had given to The New York Post about the nursing home death counts – a charge Cuomo denied before castigating Kim as unethical in a conference call with reporters. State legislators are also moving to take away Cuomo's expanded emergency authority to deal with the pandemic.

"This is clearly the toughest time for Andrew Cuomo since he's been governor, maybe in his entire political career," says Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. "There's a lot on the line."

Samuel Abrams, a political science professor at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, says Cuomo was able to shine last year because of the "power vacuum" in Washington, allowing him to step in and take charge on the virus that was then hitting New York very hard. But the governor now has it tougher, Abrams says, because Democrats are less hierarchical than Republicans, while Democrats "eat each other for lunch" – and are finding Cuomo a tasty entree.

"The woke mob has materialized around him," Abrams says of Cuomo. "Every progressive person is now piling on him, and who knows if they will back down? They rarely do."

Cuomo has proven himself a survivor, in part because of the same hardcore tactics that have earned him political enemies. He's won three gubernatorial elections in a row – the last two by landslides – trouncing primary challengers from the left and easily besting the GOP nominee. But the recent episodes have raised questions about whether the man once talked about as a presidential or vice presidential candidate might be nearing the end of his political career.

"In the era of MeToo and New York (politics), it becomes doubly serious, because it gets right at the heart of the Democratic constituency, and built off the perception of who he is, anyway," says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Cuomo "kind of flubbed it" with the inquiry into the sexual harassment allegations, at first suggesting he pick an investigator, then recommending that the state's highest ranking judge and the state attorney general, Letitia James, select a private practice attorney to look into it. James rejected the ideas and her office is doing its own investigation.

"It all had the sense of finessing and trying to game the system, which is not what you want to do in this situation," Miringoff says.

A Marist poll published last week – after the nursing home disclosures but before the full sexual harassment complaints were aired – showed Cuomo with a 49% approval rating, down from 66% in July 2020. Asked if he were doing an excellent or good job, a combined 42% said yes – down from 60% last July and about where it was before the pandemic.

A Siena College poll earlier in the month showed that Cuomo still has a high rating for his handling of the coronavirus, with 61% approving of his performance on the crisis, while his overall approval rating is 51%. A plurality – 46% – want Cuomo to run again next year.

Still, "this is a difficult chapter in time, coming to the end of a third term," Miringoff says, noting that Cuomo's father, Mario Cuomo, lost his fourth bid for governor. Andrew Cuomo, who helped run his father's campaigns, "knows more than anybody how tough that can be," Miringoff says.