Mayor Bill de Blasio fired the latest round in his war of words with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday, telling CNN that the slew of probes into the governor’s behavior and scandals are increasingly unnecessary as “everyone’s just admitting they covered up.”
The three-term governor faces a half-dozen investigations into charges that his administration misled the public and federal regulators about coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes, allegations that the governor’s staff hid the nursing home figures as Cuomo wrote his book about managing the state through the pandemic, misusing state resources and staff in writing the book, and complaints from current and former staffers about sexual harassment.
“It’s almost to the point where we don’t even need the full, formal investigation, because everyone’s just admitting that they covered up,” de Blasio said about the slew of charges of misconduct facing Cuomo, which prompted Democrats in the Assembly to even launch an impeachment investigation.
“I mean, this has been one after another piece of evidence that there was a full-fledged cover-up, that it was explicitly to help the governor sell his book — this was one of the motivating factors, a book that he used state employees to help write,” de Blasio continued.
“This is separate from the many, many allegations of sexual assault, harassment that so many women have come forward with in tremendous detail,” he added, before again reiterating his calls for Cuomo to step down or be removed from office. “It’s almost like you can’t believe this one person did all these things and is still in office, and that’s why I don’t think he should be in office any longer.”
The remarks were the latest entry in the years-long and deeply bitter feud between the two men, which erupted again in full force yesterday after Cuomo belittled de Blasio’s call to set July 1 as the reopening date for New York City.
“I want it opened up on Monday. I want to open up New York City on Tuesday. I want it open on Wednesday. I want Buffalo opened up on Thursday,” Cuomo said during a press conference in Bufallo, using an affected, whiny voice to mock de Blasio’s statement.
The governor also ridiculed the mayor over his low polling numbers in response to questions about de Blasio’s repeated demands that Cuomo step down because of the recent avalanche of scandals.
When asked to respond, de Blasio press secretary Bill Neidhardt told The Post on Wednesday, “Serial sexual assaulter says what?”
