Unlike the media reports….
This is NOT the start of a impeachment action against NY Gov Cuomo…
There is currently a investigation into the governor’s six complaints of possible sexual harassment being done by a separate group that will report its findings to NY Attorney General James and the Governor ‘s office…
One hopes the probes do not step on each other….
The piling on against the embattled Governor continues….
Democrats in the New York Legislature delivered a severe blow to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, emerging from a lengthy private meeting with a promise to launch their own investigation into the governor’s behavior — the first step toward impeachment.
Speaker Carl Heastie, addressing Democratic Assembly colleagues in the roughly five-hour meeting, laid out the “potential paths forward” to removing the increasingly embattled governor from office, according to four lawmakers in attendance. Two described the meeting as tense.
A statement from Heastie following the meeting announced he was authorizing the committee — led by Assemblymemer Charles Lavine of Nassau County — “to examine allegations of misconduct against Governor Cuomo.”
“The reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious,” Heastie said. “The committee will have the authority to interview witnesses, subpoena documents and evaluate evidence, as is allowed by the New York State Constitution. I have the utmost faith that Assemblymember Lavine and the members of the committee will conduct an expeditious, full and thorough investigation.”
Heastie said the chamber’s investigation would run concurrent — and would not interfere with — an independent probe Attorney General Tish James has launched into Cuomo, who has faced growing calls for his resignation amid allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate workplace behavior and a cover-up of Covid-19 nursing home deaths. Cuomo’s administration also referred the latest accusation to the Albany Police Department….
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A majority of Assemblymembers have now voiced support for ending Cuomo’s tenure. A total of 36 Democrats had called for the governor to resign and seven for him to be impeached ahead of Thursday’s conference meeting. Those 43 members, coupled with the chamber’s 43 Republicans, adds up to 86 — 10 more than would be required to impeach the governor.
But calling for the governor’s resignation is not the same as supporting the politically disruptive process of impeachment, and it’s unlikely the Assembly would move ahead with impeachment unless at least 54 Democrats, a majority, support doing so.
Democrats present in the Assembly conference meeting Thursday said that the discussion revolved more around the process and the speed at which they’d act than whether the allegations were true. One described the consensus to move toward impeachment as “overwhelming.”
A few, however, worried the discussion was mostly for show. Midway through the conference, State Democratic Committee Chair Jay Jacobs, who has been Cuomo’s staunchest defender in recent weeks, released a statement characterizing the latest allegation as “serious and disturbing” and agreed with the Assembly’s move — which hadn’t been announced yet — to launch an investigation of its own….
Cuomo repeats for those who did not hear him before….
He’s NOT going anywhere except to work as Governor….
Schumer and Gillibrand Call on Cuomo to Step Down
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have issued a joint statement calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign in the midst of sexual harassment allegations and a federal investigation into the state’s handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” WPIX reports.
In the linked story….’Meanwhile, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries — the chair of the House Democratic Caucus and the fifth-ranking Democrat in the House — released a statement supportive of the investigation by the attorney general, as well as the state assembly’s impeachment investiagtion, but stopped short of demanding the governor’s resignation.’….