New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is apparently digging his public relations hole even deeper than it already was, which is astonishing, to say the least.
According to the Washington Examiner, the governor reportedly threatened the career of Democratic New York assemblyman Ron Kim after he criticized the governor’s handling of the explosive situation, saying that Cuomo’s threats were “traumatizing.”
“Gov. Cuomo called me directly on Thursday to threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said. He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience,” Kim said.
The governor apparently told Kim on the phone call, “We’re in this business together, and we don’t cross certain lines,” before saying the “wrath” of crossing that line would be detrimental to his career.
“No man has ever spoken to me like that in my entire life,” Kim said in his reaction to the call. “At some point he tried to humiliate me, asking: ‘Are you a lawyer? I didn’t think so. You’re not a lawyer.’ It almost felt like in retrospect he was trying to bait me and anger me and say something inappropriate. I’m glad I didn’t.”
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Not surprisingly, an army of Cuomo’s aides and advisers immediately accused Kim of spreading false information, claiming that the governor never threatened Kim or his career in the call.
“I know, because I was one of three other people in the room when the phone call occurred. At no time did anyone threaten to ‘destroy’ anyone with their ‘wrath,’ nor engage in a ‘coverup.’ That’s beyond the pale and is, unfortunately, part of a yearslong pattern of lies by Mr. Kim against this administration,” said senior adviser Rich Azzopardi.
Of course, it’s difficult to believe anything that comes out of Cuomo’s office after one of his aides recently broke the bombshell news that his office had purposely withheld accurate reporting data on the number of nursing home COVID-19 related deaths.
The conversation between Kim and the governor took place not long after the story about the underreported numbers broke.
Several other Assembly members banded together with Kim this week and published a letter in which they claim Cuomo’s office intentionally went out of its way in misreporting the numbers so as to not draw increased attention from Trump’s Department of Justice.
The letter, which was published this week in the New York Post, claims Cuomo engaged in “intentional” obstruction of justice.
Between this dust-up and many more plaguing his administration, it looks like Cuomo is not going to have a very good year. The best thing he could do at this point would be to resign and move on, because it’s not going to get any better.
Article Source : thefederalistpapers.org
