Rumors have heated up that Rep. Matt Gaetz wants to run for governor of Florida. NBC reports that with current Gov. Ron DeSantis facing term limits, Gaetz’s possible announcement was the topic of conversation in Tallahassee during a state legislative function the past few days. One longtime Florida Republican lobbyist told NBC, “There was a lot of talk about it at the reception last night, and Gaetz was telling people to basically expect him to be in.”
It’s clear Gaetz enjoys the spotlight. His public appearances over the past few months have seen him attacking everyone in his party not named Trump, and can be interpreted as him positioning himself to be the GOP’s next top Florida Man. Frankly, for those who have watched Gaetz’s craven political theater these past few years, it’d be more shocking if he didn’t run for a new office.
Gaetz has the kind of detestable personality that inspires reactions, both voluntary and involuntary, and this news was no different.
Kerry talks with Drew Linzer, director of the online polling company Civiqs. Drew tells us what the polls say about voters’ feelings toward President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and what the results would be if the two men were to, say … run against each other for president in 2024. Oh yeah, Drew polled to find out who thinks Donald Trump is guilty of the crimes he’s been indicted for, and whether or not he should see the inside of a jail cell.
Former firearms executive turned gun industry critic Ryan Busse is seeking the 2024 Democratic nomination to challenge first-term Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte in Montana.
Busse told The Associated Press about his intentions in advance of a planned public announcement Thursday. It's his first run for public office.
If the 53-year-old from Kalispell makes it past next June's primary, he faces an uphill battle in trying to unseat Gianforte, who is able to draw from immense personal wealth to bankroll his campaign and whose party has dominated Montana during recent election cycles. Former President Donald Trump won the state in 2020 with a 16-point advantage over Joe Biden.
But Busse suggested that Republicans are vulnerable in the state after failing to keep housing prices affordable, not taking action to prevent potential property tax increases and threatening women’s health care by passing several abortion restrictions.
“To me this is a narrative about Greg Gianforte making this a playground for the wealthy and ignoring the people of Montana,” Busse said Wednesday. “They had time to extend massive tax breaks to industry, to profitable industry. They had time to blow a $2.8 billion surplus. They had time to discuss the impacts of this tax increase to Montana homeowners, and they chose to do nothing about it.”
Recent increases in home valuations could lead to an $80 million spike in residential property taxes in each of the next two years, the Revenue Department estimated. The agency suggested a change in the state’s tax rate on residential property to avoid a tax increase, but the Republican-controlled Legislature did not adopt it, instead passing a $675 property tax rebate for resident homeowners in each of the next two years.
During a 25-year career in the firearms industry, Busse said, he directed the sale of almost 3 million guns from the manufacturer Kimber America. But he became disaffected as the increasingly politicized industry began aggressively marketing military-style assault rifles such as those used in numerous mass shootings.
Since leaving the industry in 2020, Busse has served as a policy adviser for Biden’s 2020 campaign and written a book and articles highly critical of the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers.
His remonstrations against America's gun culture could become a flashpoint in the campaign given the strong support for gun rights in Montana politics. Busse, who favors background checks before purchases but opposes bans on assault rifles, predicted Republicans will portray him as anti-gun.
“I know there’s a vast, frustrated majority out there that are decent, responsible gun owners, and those are the people I represent," he said.
Busse's two sons were among 16 young plaintiffs in a high-profile climate change lawsuit that resulted in a groundbreaking ruling last month that said Montana agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment by allowing fossil fuel development without considering greenhouse gas emissions.
“Ryan Busse is straight out of the far left’s central casting – an anti-gun extremist and radical environmentalist,” Montana Republican Party Chairman Don K. Kaltschmidt said in a statement.
Gianforte spokesperson Kaitlin Price declined to say if he intends to seek another term. She said his accomplishments in office include increasing funding for schools and teachers, paying off the state’s debt and cutting taxes.
“Governor Gianforte remains focused on building upon what he committed to do and has proudly accomplished so far,” Price said in a statement.
Gianforte is a former tech industry entrepreneur who first won public office with a victory in a special U.S. House election in 2017, a day after gaining national attention for assaulting a reporter covering his campaign.
He was reelected to the House in 2018 and two years later rolled to the governorship in a race against Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney. Gianforte spent millions of his own money on that campaign, which broke state spending records.
His victory wrested control of the governor’s seat from Democrats, who had held it 16 years.
Republican State Rep. Tanner Smith of Lakeside plans to challenge Gianforte in the primary. Smith is a business owner and school board trustee who said he would ensure high-quality education, increase teacher pay and support responsible fiscal policies that would allow the state to reduce taxes.
The filing deadline with the Secretary of State's Office for candidates to run in next year's election is March 11.
It's a shame Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron didn’t come to the same conclusion about a former Louisville police detective that she did about herself. That conclusion seems to be that Kelly Goodlett is guilty of helping falsify a no-knock search warrant for Breonna Taylor's home and filing a false report to cover it up. Goodlett will plead to one count of conspiring to violate Taylor's civil rights, ABC News reported on Friday. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed on Mar. 13, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky although she wasn't the subject of the warrant Goodlett allegedly helped falsify. The Black medical worker was sleeping when officers rammed through her door.
Still, Cameron didn’t even pretend to seek Goodlett’s prosecution or that of any other officer for Taylor’s death. It’s a fact that hopefully voters won’t soon forget amid his gubernatorial run.
Cameron attempted to make his case for why he should be the state’s next governor on Aug. 6 at the 142nd Fancy Farm Picnic. But demonstrators refused to let him have an unearned moment in the sun at the picnic in the unincorporated community in Graves County, Kentucky. They’ve watched him avoid holding officers involved in Taylor’s death accountable for more than two years now, and they refused to be silent while Cameron attempted to profit politically from his inaction.
“Breonna Taylor,” protesters shouted while Cameron raised his voice to compete with them.
He didn’t mention her name once in his speech, but he voiced support for law enforcement, telling them: “Know that we will always have your back, and we will always support the blue.”
Earlier in the day, Cameron told reporters two of the cops who shot Taylor, retired Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove, didn't use excessive force the night of Taylor's death.
“I know folks have very strong feelings about this case ... but we have a responsibility to not give into any preferred narrative,” he said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “We have a responsibility to do right by the laws of Kentucky and that’s what we did.”
What was right to Cameron, who served as special prosecutor after Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine recused himself, was to allow the officers involved with Taylor’s death to rest easy knowing they wouldn’t be held accountable by the state’s top prosecutor.
Cameron only sought charges against one cop, former Detective Brett Hankison, not for killing Taylor but for allegedly endangering her neighbors in the process.
It took the Department of Justice stepping in to charge former Louisville police Detective Joshua Jaynes, former Sgt. Kyle Meany, and Goodlett allegedly for violating Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The officers sought the warrant to search Taylor's home "knowing that the officers lacked probable cause for the search," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in remarks announcing the federal charges. Goodlett is set to appear in court to enter her plea on Aug. 22, ABC News reported.
The Department of Justice also charged Hankison "with two civil rights offenses alleging that he willfully used unconstitutionally excessive force” when he fired 10 shots through a window and a sliding glass door, “both of which were covered with blinds and curtains,” according to the Department of Justice.
Cameron attempted to excuse his lack of action in a seven-part Twitter thread responding to the federal charges.
He said:
“As in every prosecution, our office supports the impartial administration of justice, but it is important that people not conflate what happened today with the state law investigation undertaken by our office. Our primary task was to investigate whether the officers who executed the search warrant were criminally responsible for Ms. Taylor’s death under state law.
"At the conclusion of our investigation, our prosecutors submitted the information to a state grand jury, which ultimately resulted in criminal charges being brought against Mr. Brett Hankison for wanton endangerment.
"I’m proud of the work of our investigators & prosecutors. This case and the loss of Ms. Taylor’s life have generated national attention. People across the country have grieved, and there isn’t a person I’ve spoken to across our 120 counties that isn’t saddened by her loss. There are those, however, who want to use this moment to divide Kentuckians, misrepresent the facts of the state investigation, and broadly impugn the character of our law enforcement community.
"I won’t participate in that sort of rancor. It’s not productive. Instead, I’ll continue to speak with the love and respect that is consistent with our values as Kentuckians."
Three grand jurors in the Taylor case filed a petition with the Kentucky House of Representatives calling for Cameron's impeachment for what they described as manipulation in his presentation to jurors. Kevin Glogower, the lawyer who represented the jurors, told the Courier-Journal: “Mr. Cameron continues to blatantly disregard the truth,” which was that he never even mentioned a homicide charge in his presentation to jurors.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said that Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign after a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James that the governor sexually harassed 11 women.
Biden told reporters at the White House, “He should resign.”
The President isn’t alone either – other powerful Democrats, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and a host of other national and New York state politicians – have called for Cuomo to resign.
Cuomo has so far remained defiant, refusing to resign and claiming that his behavior was all above board.
BREAKING: Pres. Biden calls on New York Gov. Cuomo to resign from office: "I think he should resign." pic.twitter.com/E2UJmrZdkZ
Biden said at the White House on Tuesday, “I understand the state legislature may decide to impeach, I do not know that for a fact.”
Not long after Biden’s statement, Democratic New York State House Speaker Carl Heastie announced an impeachment inquiry into Cuomo.
Attorney General James’ report, which is 165 pages and features interviews with 179 witnesses and a review of tens of thousands of documents, represents four months long investigation that concluded that Cuomo “sexually harassed multiple women, and in doing so violated federal and state law,” James said.
Yet, incredibly, James also said she was not charging Cuomo.
Cuomo continued to deny the allegations, and said other incidents were merely a misunderstanding.
“First, I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” Cuomo said on Tuesday after the report was made available.
“I am 63 years old,” Cuomo declared. “I’ve lived my entire adult life in public view.”
He added, “That is just not who I am, and that’s not who I have ever been.”
Regarding accuser and former aide Charlotte Bennett, Cuomo admitted that he “did ask her questions I don’t normally ask people” — including about her romantic life.
Cuomo said he was “truly and deeply sorry” for his unprofessional comments but also said she “heard things I just didn’t say.”
Cuomo’s denial also included a long document which featured images of himself and President Biden hugging and touching people.
Perhaps the most talked-about part of the whole affair – Cuomo defended himself by saying he touches everyone’s face.
He even came prepared with a video slideshow.
Of the face-touching, Cuomo said, “I do it with everyone. Black and white, young and old, straight and LGBTQ, powerful people, friends, strangers, people who I meet on the street.”
Watch:
Incredible moment as Cuomo displays face-touching slideshow: “I do it with everyone. Black and white, young and old, straight and LGBTQ, powerful people, friends, strangers, people who I meet on the street.” pic.twitter.com/CIwbAJj9R3
Biden on Cuomo in March after accusations emerged: ‘I think he’ll probably end up being prosecuted, too’
When the sexual harassment accusations came to light in March, President Biden at the time said Cuomo would need to step down if they were valid allegations.
“I think he’ll probably end up being prosecuted, too,” Biden told ABC News in a March 16 interview.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, “I don’t know that anyone could have watched [James’ press conference] this morning and not found the allegations to be abhorrent— I know I certainly did.”
REMINDER: In March, Joe Biden said Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign if sexual allegations were confirmed pic.twitter.com/JuIpgLTtde
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One-time Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin told a conservative Christian group that she’d consider running for a Senate seat in Alaska “if God wants me to.”
Palin, the former Governor of Alaska, made the comments in an appearance at the Leading with Conviction Conference in Pasadena, California, last month.
The conservative politician expressed interest in taking on Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted to convict former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial.
“If God wants me to do it I will,” Palin said after New Apostolic Reformation leader Ché Ahn asked her if she was planning on running for the Senate seat.
Sarah Palin warned the audience that conservatives and Republicans would need to have her back if she ran for Murkowski’s Senate seat.
“What I would do if I were to announce is say you know what, you guys better be there for me this time because a lot of people weren’t there for me last time and that’s why characterization-wise, I got clobbered,” she continued.
Palin went on to accuse former President Barack Obama and his administration of sending in “flying monkeys” to destroy her career.
The former governor said she was inundated with ethics probes, FOIA requests, and media criticism that she simply couldn’t continue battling while effectively running the state.
“The Obama administration sent their flying monkeys,” she claimed, suggesting “it stalled our administration.”
The harassment, she suggested, ultimately led her to resign. Still, she refused to concede that she had quit.
“Every e-mail, every conversation was scrutinized,” said Palin. “So, there’s a difference between quitting and saying enough is enough.”
Sarah Palin if she will run against Murkowski. “If God wants me to do it, I will. You guys better be there for me this time. Because a lot of people weren’t there for me last time, and that’s why, characterization-wise (wtf), I got clobbered.” Then they pray. From @RightWingWatchpic.twitter.com/Qf0c8hc5YY
Sarah Palin isn’t the only conservative who would replace Murkowski.
Kelly Tshibaka released an ad a little over a month ago portraying herself as an outsider looking to upset the establishment. The ad featured some very Trump-like themes.
“I’m a conservative, pro-life, pro-second amendment,” she states. “And America first, always.”
Tshibaka, as Alaska’s News Source reports, is “closely aligned politically with former President Donald Trump.”
She has also reportedly hired several advisers with ties to the former President to help her campaign to defeat Murkowski.
Palin spoke of Tshibaka and had some reservations about the name recognition factor when it comes to defeating the incumbent.
“Kind of the scary thing about it is I’ve been in politics seems like all my life in Alaska and I never heard of her so that kind of made me hesitant,” Palin worried.
The former running mate of John McCain, for better or worse, certainly has the name recognition to generate interest in a Senate campaign.
Trump and Palin have shared conservative values but also a shared disdain for both Murkowski and the late Senator McCain.
Trump has already endorsed Tshibaka, though it has more to do with Murkowski’s failure to advance the Republican agenda and do what is right for Alaska than anything else.
“Lisa Murkowski is bad for Alaska,” he said in a statement. “Murkowski has got to go!”
Would he possibly shift his endorsement should Palin jump into the race?
Murkoski famously joined McCain and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in abandoning their party and helping to keep the Affordable Care Act alive.
She more recently had a role in voting to confirm appointees for President Biden who have aided the revocation of ANWR drilling permits, a potentially devastating move for Alaska’s economy.
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The NYSBA (New York State Bar Association) Task Force on Nursing Homes and Long-Term Care determined that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order policy forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for COVID-19 led to more deaths.
The report is a devastating indictment on the Democrat governor’s policies and their effects on the elderly in the Empire State during the early stages of the pandemic.
The task force, according to the New York Post, defined Cuomo’s directive as “unreasonable” in both its “absoluteness” and the length of time it was left in effect.
While they were unable to put a particular number on that effect, the NYSBA was able to determine “there are credible reviews that suggest that the directive, for the approximately six weeks that it was in effect, did lead to some number of additional deaths.”
I hope this sinks in for all the journalists who gushed about just how great a job Andrew Cuomo did with Covid. | Cuomo nursing home order did cause more deaths, should’ve been reversed sooner: task force https://t.co/49YhKG6k7J
The New York Democrat and his top aides have also been accused of hiding the data on those nursing home deaths and stripping numbers from DOH (Department of Health) reports.
For months Cuomo touted a DOH report which contained an explicit quantifier that the order forcing the care facilities to take on COVID-positive patients was “not a driver of nursing home infections or fatalities.”
The NYSBA task force determined that was not accurate.
“The Department of Health issued a report in 2020 in which it argued unconvincingly that the admission of 6,326 COVID-positive residents during the period the Health directive was in effect had no impact,” the report states.
“That cannot be the case, and has now been shown not to be the case.”
The 242-page report by the NYSBA’s Task Force on Nursing Homes and Long-Term Care also blasts Cuomo for not reversing the Department of Health’s “unreasonable” mandate sooner than he did, saying it remained in effect weeks longer than necessary.”
The report that Governor Cuomo’s executive order for nursing homes did lead to more deaths is a small measure of vindication for Fox News meteorologist and author Janice Dean, who has argued for months that his policies led to the deaths of more seniors than in any other state.
She argued in an op-ed column for USA Today over the summer that very point.
Dean’s in-laws were the unfortunate victims of COVID-19, where nursing homes in New York played a significant part.
“At first we didn’t blame anyone for my in-laws’ deaths. This is a pandemic, after all,” she wrote. “Then we learned about a policy that put them in danger.”
Dean’s column featured a sub-heading arguing, “My family didn’t have to die.”
Janice Dean: COVID-19 killed my in-laws after Cuomo’s reckless New York nursing home policy https://t.co/euuKg6oPUJ via @usatoday
Governor Cuomo is under investigation and impeachment inquiry for a slew of scandals, not the least of which involves the nursing home executive order and subsequent effort to obstruct justice by hiding the numbers.
They include:
Numerous sexual misconduct allegations including a police report involving forcibly groping an aide.
Bullying and threatening fellow lawmakers and members of the media.
Under investigation for a $5.1 million book deal profiting off the pandemic by having aides write and edit portions using state resources.
Provided priority COVID-19 testing for his family and associates, also allegedly using state resources.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out admitting over 9,000 Covid patients into nursing homes for 46 days would increase the amount of deaths, but if a 242-page report from the NY State Bar association proves [Cuomo] lied and people died, so be it,” Dean tweeted.
The Fox News personality has suggested many people in the Cuomo administration belong in prison over the nursing home scandal.
“I really feel like he should go to jail,” Dean has said. “And all these people surrounding him that covered this up for so many months, they should go to jail.”
The NYSBA report relied in part on a study by the Empire Center for Public Policy that tied “several hundred and possibly more than 1,000” deaths of nursing home residents to Cuomo’s executive order.
There is now a straight-line correlation between his policies and the deaths of the elderly during the pandemic. The question is, will anybody in New York state do anything about it?
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Fox News meteorologist and author Janice Dean slammed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over news that he will be hosting a $10,000 per ticket fundraiser for his re-election later this month.
The event is being dubbed a “summer reception” with the governor and offers single tickets at the aforementioned price, as well as dual admission at a cost of $15,000.
“You. Can’t. Make. It. Up,” Dean seethed in a tweet sharing the report. “[$10,000] to meet the Luv Guv in person this month.”
The reference to Cuomo as the ‘Luv Guv’ is a likely jab at both he and his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who helped hype the Governor during the pandemic by playfully referring to his single status.
“I am the Luv Guv,” the Democrat said to his little brother at one point. “I’m a cool dude in a loose mood, you know that. I just say let it go, just go with the flow, baby.”
In a subsequent tweet hours later, Dean referred to Cuomo as “despicable.”
The $10,000 per ticket event does not have a specific location listed on the invitation but does indicate it will be held somewhere in New York City.
Cuomo Fundraiser In Between Multiple Investigations
The extravagant fundraiser comes as Andrew Cuomo’s political future is in turmoil, the subject of multiple investigations and impeachment inquiries.
The scandals embroiling him are wide-ranging and numerous, including:
Forcing nursing homes to take on COVID-positive patients.
Hiding the data on those deaths and stripping numbers from DOH reports.
Numerous sexual misconduct allegations including a police report involving forcibly groping an aide.
Bullying and threatening fellow lawmakers and members of the media.
Under investigation for a $5.1 million book deal profiting off the pandemic by having aides write and edit portions using state resources.
Provided priority COVID-19 testing for his family and associates, also allegedly using state resources.
Dutchess County Executive and 2018 Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro joked that the fundraiser might well just be going to Cuomo’s legal defense fund.
There’s a typo: “Cuomo to host $10,000 a ticket legal defense fund fundraiser.”
Dean has been a leading voice on the nursing home scandal involving Governor Cuomo, her in-laws being the sad and unfortunate victims of COVID-19, where nursing homes in New York played a significant part.
Cuomo issued an executive order last March forcing care facilities to take in COVID-positive patients. The order was not reversed for months.
A bombshell report from the New York Times in April led Dean to suggest many people in the Cuomo administration belong in prison.
The Times report indicated top aides to the Governor overruled his own health experts, blocked the release of the pandemic’s true death toll numbers at nursing homes for five months, and did so all while they were helping him write a book using state resources.
“I really feel like he should go to jail,” Dean said at the time. “And all these people surrounding him that covered this up for so many months, they should go to jail.”
Maybe a good old fashioned protest outside this cash grab at the end of the month? https://t.co/K0kPACihXS
Dean responded to McLaughlin’s suggestion saying she would “definitely call and find out where the event is.”
She later advised that Governor Cuomo, instead of holding a $10,000 per ticket fundraiser for re-election, should meet with the families of the victims of his nursing home scandal.
“I think he should meet with many of us who lost loved ones in nursing homes. But he’s a coward,” lamented Dean. “He would never show up.”
State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, is also conducting an investigation of allegations that the Governor used state resources and state employees to write his book on leadership during the pandemic.
The book earned Cuomo a $5.1 million payday.
The Albany Times Union is accusing the Cuomo administration of refusing to release records involving the book.
The New York Post is reporting that Cuomo’s fundraiser is the first since being hit with state and federal investigations.
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Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean called for Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) to be impeached today, claiming that he covered up the death toll in nursing homes because “he had a book to sell, a $4 million book.”
Dean Blasts Cuomo
While appearing on “Fox & Friends,” Dean said that Cuomo “would go on these interviews on television, when they would finally ask him the question about the nursing homes, he would give false information and he knew all along he was lying. So why did he and his top aides, including Melissa DeRosa, go to such great lengths to make sure that no one would find out the real total of the deaths? I think it’s because it’s criminal and he had a book to sell, a $4 million book.”
Not stopping there, Dean called on lawmakers to take action.
“Our lawmakers in Albany need to do something,” she added. “This whitewash of an impeachment is ridiculous. Go in there today and get it done. There are at least four investigations into this governor. How much more do you need to get him out?”
Dean Feels Relief
This comes a day after Dean said she feels relief to see the tide finally start to turn against Cuomo after she spent nearly a year being “beaten down” as she desperately fought against him.
“I feel like all of these months, close to a year now, it feels like it finally is happening, that all of the things we’ve been yelling about and trying to shine a light on, it’s finally happening,” Dean told Fox News. “I really feel like he should go to jail. And all these people surrounding him that covered this up for so many months, they should go to jail.”
Dean has been fighting to get justice for her in-laws, who both died in New York nursing homes.
“It’s like I just have to think that my in-laws had a purpose. I always say, like, we’re on the side of the angels and you can’t deny that,” she said. “I feel like they’ve always helped me this whole year… just to give me the strength to continue to go on.”
“And, you know, people made fun of me in the beginning, even the Cuomo administration… like she’s nothing but the weather girl and what does she know?” Dean continued. “You know, sometimes the weather girl gets it right. And I do want justice for them. They deserve it.”
This piece was written by James Samson on April 29, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Republican Representative Lee Zeldin announced he is running for governor of New York, saying Andrew Cuomo must be ousted in order to “save our state.”
“I’m running for governor of New York in 2022,” Zeldin declared in an interview with ‘Fox & Friends.’ “We are going to win this race.”
In an accompanying statement, Zeldin vowed to “bring the kind of relentless, fighting spirit towards helping to save our state that Andrew Cuomo only reserves for multi-million dollar self-congratulatory book deals, cover-ups, abuse and self-dealing.”
And while he pointed out Cuomo’s “long line of scandals,” the Republican focused on what he has to offer the Empire State, including beating back the impacts of poor “tax policy,” “public safety,” and “attacks on our freedoms.”
Zeldin went on to suggest the current woes in New York are due to one-party Democrat rule in New York City and Albany.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has become vulnerable of late, currently plagued by several scandals including:
Forcing nursing homes to take on COVID-positive patients.
Obstructing justice by hiding the data on those deaths and stripping numbers from DOH reports.
Numerous sexual misconduct allegations including a police report involving forcibly groping an aide.
Bullying and threatening fellow lawmakers and members of the media.
Under investigation for a $4 million book deal profiting off the pandemic by having aides write and edit portions using state resources.
“Cuomo has abused the power and trust granted to him and it is time for him to immediately exit stage left,” Lee Zeldin said.
He has actively called for Cuomo’s impeachment in the face of resistance to resigning over his many scandals.
But he smartly notes that it isn’t just the details of these salacious accusations that are the problem – it’s Cuomo’s inability to competently run the state.
“The New York that was once a magnet for the world’s best and brightest is now forcing its own to leave under the crushing weight of skyrocketing taxes, lost jobs, suffocating regulations, and rising crime resulting from dangerously liberal policies,” Zeldin accused.
“At the helm of New York’s downfall is Governor Andrew Cuomo.”
Speaking of skyrocketing taxes and incentives to leave the state, the New York Times on Tuesday reported that Governor Cuomo and the New York legislature had reached an agreement on a $212 billion budget.
The budget includes “tax increases” on the wealthy – or job creators – as well as “a $2.1 billion fund to provide one-time payments for undocumented workers who did not qualify for federal stimulus checks or unemployment benefits.”
New York will offer one-time payments of up to $15,600 to undocumented immigrants who lost work during the pandemic. The effort — a $2.1 billion fund in the state budget — is by far the biggest of its kind in the U.S. https://t.co/NT8NZy3V9r
New York Republican Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy released a statement blasting the budget proposal while indicating the only thing that can save New York is a new governor.
“The only thing this budget accomplishes is the accelerated decline of our state,” Langworthy said. “It’s a $212 billion dollar tax-and-spend boondoggle that will push New York’s mass exodus to the point of no return.”
“This budget makes clear that the only way to save New York is to elect a Republican governor who will stand up to this madness and return common sense to state government,” he added.
Will Lee Zeldin be the man to do that?
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Should the impeachment investigation involving Andrew Cuomo proceed to a vote, all 7 Court of Appeals judges involved will have been appointed by the New York Governor himself.
The New York state impeachment process is a bit unique in that following an impeachment vote in the Assembly, a court is formed consisting of members of the Senate as well as the seven members of the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
Those judges – Rowan Wilson, Jenny Rivera, Leslie Stein, Eugene Fahey, Michael Garcia, Paul Feinman and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore – were all appointed by Cuomo between 2013 and 2017.
In an interview with NewsMax, former Rep. John Faso (R-NY) said that the Cuomo appointees are “mostly liberal … very liberal” and “they are all Democrats except one.”
“The seven judges could be instrumental in determining the outcome of a potential impeachment trial as they would make up 10% of the 70-person impeachment court,” Fox News analyzes.
The specter of having judges appointed by Andrew Cuomo possibly deciding the outcome of an impeachment trial for the governor is raising concerns that the process may be a sham.
Speaker of the New York State Assembly Carl Heastie has said the probe would be “very broad,” possibly including more than just the numerous sexual harassment claims against Cuomo.
Heastie announced on Wednesday that the Assembly had hired one of the nation’s top-rated law firms, Davis Polk & Wardwell, to assist with the investigation.
The group includes a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor who worked as an assistant special counsel on Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Lindsey Boylan, a former Cuomo aide who was the first to accuse Cuomo of sexual misconduct, is not impressed with the investigation thus far, calling it a “sham,” “corrupt,” and “cynical” probe.
What would be the point of survivors talking to investigators of your sham investigation @CarlHeastie?
I am in conversation with other women who have no interest in your corrupt, cynical “investigation.” Hard pass.
Boylan insisted she would not take part in the state-led impeachment probe.
“Do not trust [Heastie],” she tweeted. “His impeachment investigation is not designed to be transparent or to move fast, and there’s nothing [Cuomo] wants more than time.”
“Many of us have not put our whole lives on the line for this crap,” she added. “I certainly have not and will not.”
Boylan has claimed that Cuomo forcibly kissed her on the lips and suggested “let’s play strip poker.”
Nursing Home Whistleblower Says Staff Were ‘Petrified’ Of Cuomo’s Executive Order
The impeachment investigation is supposed to address the nursing home scandal as well, inarguably the bigger issue at hand for Cuomo.
That scandal involves an executive order by the governor forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients and the subsequent cover-up involving the number of deaths related to that order.
Cuomo, on March 25th of last year, issued an executive order prohibiting nursing homes from requiring incoming patients “to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
Cuomo refused to reverse the directive for over six weeks while well over 15,000 senior citizens succumbed to the virus.
The Political Insider reported in August that what separated New York from other states with their own nursing home directives is that the staff at the facilities felt pressured by the Governor.
Politifact confirmed the notion saying Cuomo left executives at nursing homes feeling that “they had no choice but to accept these patients” despite the threat of spreading the virus.
Michael Kraus, a Staten Island nursing home administrator, has alleged he and other executives of long-term care facilities were “petrified” of the Cuomo order and that his concerns were “shot down” by state officials.
“Many facilities vocalized it,” Kraus said in an interview with Fox News.
“They were petrified, but they were more petrified of the Department of Health … once it [my concern] was shot down, I never spoke [about it] again.”
Secretary to the Governor, Melissa DeRosa, admitted on a conference call in February that the administration hid information on COVID nursing home deaths from federal investigators.
For months the administration reported around 8,500 deaths, nearly 50% less than the confirmed number.
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