“Impeachable Offense”: NY Democrats DEMANDS Cuomo To Face Investigation

"andrew cuomo" (CC BY-ND 2.0) by Zack Seward

The Democratic lawmaker in New York, who claimed that Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened him last week due to his revelations about Cuomo’s Coronavirus nursing home, is now openly requesting Cuomo to face an impeachment inquiry. 

Last Sunday, New York Democratic lawmakers were “inching” toward an impeachment inquiry, and this move had bipartisan support. On Monday, New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim officially asked for an investigation in his post on social media.

Kim said, “Cuomo abused his powers to hide life and death information from the Department of Justice that prevented lawmakers from legislating – like fully repealing corporate immunity for nursing homes. That is an impeachable offense.”

The New York State Assemblyman continued, “The only way to protect the integrity of the co-equal branch of the state government, AKA the ‘People’s House,’ is to start impeachment.”

Although the New York State constitution does not establish a standard for impeachment and there has only been one governor in New York who has been impeached, the New York State Assembly can impeach a governor through a simple majority vote. The same as the impeachment process in Congress, the case also proceeds to trial in the state Senate. 

Cuomo was under fire for allegedly giving an order at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced New York nursing homes and other adult care facilities to accept recovering Coronvirus patients regardless of whether they are still contagious. 

The said policy, which has only been repealed two months later, was responsible for the thousands of COVID-19 deaths in New York, particularly among the elderly and minorities. 

Although Cuomo escaped scrutiny from the mainstream media, the situation did not escape the Department of Justice. 

In the past week, a top aide of Cuomo revealed to the prominent state Democrats that the Cuomo administration had deliberately hidden data about the nursing home policy in order to avoid federal scrutiny. 

Last week, Albany Times-Union published that the Cuomo administration is under investigation from both the FBI and the United States Attorney in Brooklyn. However, neither of these agencies was willing to provide details about the probe. 

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Kim told Yahoo News’ podcast that the investigation against the Cuomo administration might be centered around allegations that Cuomo obstructed justice. 

In the same podcast, Kim also said that he believes that the Cuomo impeachment inquiry will happen. He said, “It will take a little time to build that consensus, but every day we are inching toward the impeachment process.”

Yahoo News added, “He estimated that along with ‘virtually all’ Republicans, between 25 and 30 Democratic legislators currently support an impeachment inquiry into Cuomo — a number he suggested is growing steadily.”

Other than Assemblyman Kim, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is also in favor of doing a deeper investigation against the Cuomo administration. 

On Monday, the New York City Mayor said, “I have not spoken to [Cuomo]. No, I do not accept his explanation.” de Blasio added, “There needs to be a full investigation. We need to get the whole truth and make sure nothing like this ever happens ever again.”

Meanwhile, Cuomo threw the blame on the Trump administration for allegedly mishandling the pandemic.

According to Fox News’s report, Cuomo made a public appearance at a mass vaccination site at Medgar Evers College in New York City on Monday morning. He was joined by a handful of New York State Assembly members but did not address the nursing home deaths or take questions.

The report also added that “Cuomo blamed the Trump administration for lack of coronavirus vaccines and accused the former administration of creating mistrust around the vaccine in the Black community.” 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR