Since joining the Assembly, February and March have always been two of the most busy months of the year. This is the time we introduce/reintroduce bills, review the Governor’s proposed budget, and partake in numerous budget hearings. This year has been no different, and I have been even more busy due to my new position on the Assembly Ways & Means Committee. However, these typical negotiations are not what have turned our state government upside down these past two months.
Those who have been following the Cuomo COVID Cover-Up story since last spring know that I have been on top of it from the very beginning, and been working with other legislators and advocates to uncover the unvarnished truth. The January report that Attorney General Leticia James released validated what so many of us had been shouting from the rooftops, and led to greater attention in the mainstream media. Since then, the breaking news has continued to drip out almost daily. The Governor’s administration is now reportedly subject to both investigations from the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. Potential charges of obstruction of justice and possible coercion from the governor against state legislators are being discussed. More recently, the Wall Street Journal broke a story confirming the Governor’s office influenced what data was included, or more importantly left out, in the Department of Health’s July Report defending the administration’s highly controversial March 25th mandate surrounding COVID-19 and nursing homes. Yes, #CuomoCoverup is trending.
This was all before the additional scandals hit the Cuomo administration from numerous women accusing the Governor of sexual harassment, many from within the workplace. The Governor gave a partial apology during a press conference, but it seems the Governor didn’t fully realize #MeToo also meant #HimToo.
I continue to call for an Impeachment Commission to investigate and recommend potential counts of impeachment, in addition to supporting legislative committee hearings with subpoenas to learn from our state’s past mistakes and support better public health policy moving forward.
Many political figures are just now jumping on the bandwagon screaming things like “resign”, but so many of these very same political figures were silent throughout the entire year of 2020 when I and few others were sounding the alarm. Everyone, including the Governor, deserves due process regardless of outside political pressures, but New Yorkers also deserve answers and we must ensure anyone who inflicted harm and then covered it up is brought to justice.
The above notwithstanding, we still have an enormous amount of work to do. The Governor’s corrupt coverup cannot prevent us from moving forward to do the people’s work.
