Should Governor Cuomo be impeached?

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. Today is Friday the 26^th day of February in the year 2021. Today, I will be talking about the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo from the standpoint of whether he should be impeached and not allowed to serve until his term expires in 2022. If the answer to whether he should be impeached is yes, then why is it yes.

Castle Family update – and why no broadcast last week

The Castle family is warm and cozy once again as the temperatures have returned to the 60’s and high 50’s. This is an amazing place to live when you can have 12 inches of snow one week and 3-degree temperatures when even the city’s water lines froze, and 70 degrees one week later. It is good to be back in the office full time. The family daughter remains just fine in 75-degree Los Angeles.

What is going on with Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.)?

What in the world is going on with Governor Cuomo? The image he has tried very hard to cultivate for himself as a model of propriety, a paragon of virtue, highly competent, great leader is in serious doubt today. Attacks are coming at him on several fronts with new accusations an almost daily occurrence. It’s almost as if his fellow New York Democrats are sharks with blood in the water.

SARS-CoV-2, long-term care home deaths, and a cover-up

The first attack came when his top aide and secretary to the Governor, Melissa DeRosa revealed during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders that the Governor had ordered his staff to cover up the actual number of nursing home deaths in New York due to the virus. He rebuffed a legislative request in August for the information. Then she said President Trump turned it into a giant political football.

I suppose that almost 15,000 deaths because of the Governor’s actions does make a pretty good football. Interestingly, Ms. DeRosa’s regret in her revelation was not because of what the Governor did but that the information could be used by Republicans. In addition to going after everybody, Trump directs the Department of Justice “to do an investigation into us. We froze,” she said. “We weren’t sure what we were going to give the Department of Justice or the New York Legislature.”

So, the thought that maybe the Governor had an obligation to tell the truth never occurred to them. The only thought was to find a lie that the most people would believe. The Governor had issued orders to the Health Department to issue a directive that nursing homes admit infected patients. Then he ordered New York hospitals to discharge infected elderly patients to nursing homes thus spreading the disease among the most vulnerable resulting in the unnecessary deaths of thousands.

A cold political calculation

Ms. DeRosa asked the legislators to keep what happened in context. She apologized on behalf of the Governor for what she termed the inconvenience it caused them. She said she was sorry the Republicans would be able to use the information against them. No apology to the grieving families and no promises to do whatever they could to make amends. No, it was just a cold, calculated political decision.

When you read or listen on video to her apology you can see that she is not apologizing for the act but for the political damage it might cause her fellow Democrats. “So, we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I do know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”

Apology rejected

Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried rejected her apology. “I don’t have enough time to explain all the reasons why I don’t give that any credit at all.” Mr. Gottfried is one of the lawmakers who demanded the death data from the Governor in August. Several lawmakers expressed dismay at the callous nature of the Governor’s actions, and that it fostered mistrust of the health system during a pandemic when everyone in the system is clamoring to get the people to trust them and the system. Well, yes, I suppose it does foster distrust when the state’s highest official causes thousands of unnecessary deaths and then lies about it. No apologies to the families of the dead, at least none that I have been able to find.

It seems to me as if the Governor does not understand what happens when a strong man appears to be weak. Hyenas circle the wounded lion and probe for a fatal weakness which is almost always there. The first attack came from New York Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat from Queens. He said that it sounded like the administration was trying to dodge having to reveal any information that might appear criminal to the Department of Justice.

Is Cuomo guilty of negligent homicide and reckless indifference?

Yes, Mr. Kim to your statement I would add that charges could include negligent homicide and reckless indifference to human life.¹ Mr. Kim’s uncle died in a New York nursing home in April 2020. So he was not inclined to accept Ms. DeRosa’s apology either. He pointed out that although they had been contrite with the Democrat legislators, they had not been so with the public or the families.

I will add to that statement that they were only contrite about withholding information that may have caused political embarrassment, not for unnecessarily killing people. The administration also withheld the death numbers from the press despite freedom of information requests. When the actual data finally was uncovered it turns out that the death numbers were underreported by 50%. The people in the New York Governor’s office do not seem to understand that killing a person is worse than falsifying the information about the killing.

Mr. Kim refused to be dissuaded and pressed ahead with his attacks on the Governor. He told The New York Post that the Governor personally called him on his cell phone while he was bathing his kids at home. The Governor threatened him and said he would destroy him politically. Mr. Kim went to the legislature and the press with the information so once again we find that the cover-up is often more damaging than the crime.

Cuomo pulls a Hillary

A report by the New York Attorney General’s office was damning to the Governor and gave the numbers the investigation had revealed. That led to a press conference in which the Governor callously dismissed the matter of where the fatalities took place. What difference does it make where they died anyway? What the Governor did not say was that the real question was how many non-infected people died because he introduced thousands of sick people into their midst. He literally said who cares where they died.

Each time the Governor speaks with his callous and condescending attitude his political position becomes weaker. He just can’t seem to grasp that he might not be the most powerful person in New York anymore and that some people actually do care who lives and who dies. Sometimes, however, when people start ripping the seams or pulling on the threads the entire garment starts to unravel as we will see.

Sexual harassment – and an interesting reversal

I will introduce the next attack by saying that when Christine Blasey Ford accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Governor Cuomo insisted everyone believe her, and that Kavanaugh take a lie detector test.² His hypocrisy is obvious then, in light of the charge from his former deputy secretary for economic development, Lindsey Boylan, who is now running for Manhattan borough president.

She wrote a 1700-word essay setting out the details of how Cuomo eyed her from early on: went out of his way to touch her on her lower back, arms, and legs; asked her to play strip poker while flying home on his taxpayer funded jet; and blocked her exit from his office and kissed her on the lips without warning. She provided e-mail and text messages to support her claims which she first made in December when no one was willing to listen.

His boorish and abusive behavior was not shocking, just par for the course Ms. Boylan said. The Governor created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive, its expected. She added that the Governor used intimidation to silence his critics. She said another woman told her that she was too scared of what might happen to her if she rejected the Governor’s advances. Ms. Boylan also said that when she first went public someone leaked parts of her confidential personnel file to smear her.

Cuomo the bully

When Mr. Kim, the assemblyman who said the Governor threatened to destroy, made the call from the Governor public, the Governor began to lodge public attacks against him which fits the pattern of intimidation and bullying. Others are now coming forward as they apparently sense some protection from the intimidation. Reporter Morgan Pehme disclosed how Cuomo “terrorized” him in a bid to suppress a story he wrote.

Karen Hinton, another ex-Cuomo aide, blasts Cuomo’s “penis politics”. New York Mayor de Blasio calls Mr. Kim’s account “classic Cuomo” adding that he knows a lot of people who have suffered similar abuse.

My thanks to The New York Post for its courage to cover the story presented by Lindsey Boylan and the others. The Post has been on top of the story from the beginning but the Times, not so much. I guess the Times doesn’t consider the behavior of the New York Governor and state’s most powerful person’s gross hypocrisy, lying and his causing unnecessary deaths by the thousands part of all the news that’s fit to print.

Impeach Cuomo?

In conclusion, The New York Post has called for the impeachment of Governor Cuomo. Unlike California, New York does not have a statute whereby the voters can recall him. He must be impeached by the legislature to be removed. He is serving his third term as Governor which term ends in 2022. I suspect that his plans were to win election to the fourth term that eluded his father, Mario. That would give him a base of power and two years to campaign for the Democrat nomination in 2024. I suppose a funny thing happened on the way to the White House.

Finally, folks, I know that there has been a systemic breakdown of morality in this country but politicians, especially Democrat ones, seem to have no morality at all unless you believe that an ally cat or billy goat has morals. The Post takes the view that even if all the sexual intimidation reports are untrue, the nursing home scandal is enough to impeach and I agree.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle.

Editor’s Notes

This article first appeared here and appears on CNAV by permission.

See also Joan Swirsky’s treatment of Gov. Cuomo’s conduct of the pandemic, even to refusing President Trump’s material aid.

1 Those are “fighting words,” as any attorney knows. They recall the four steps of mens rea: negligence, recklessness, knowledge and intent.

2 “Lie detectors” and their results are never admissible in any court of law. A fact Gov. Cuomo ought to know.