Four Freedoms Democratic Club Calls For Governor Andrew Cuomo To Resign

Following a vote of the Four Freedoms membership, the Club has adopted the following resolution:

WHEREAS Governor Andrew Cuomo unilaterally instituted a policy on March 25, 2020 through which COVID-19 positive patients were admitted to nursing homes in New York, leading to over 15,000 deaths that were not disclosed until a January 2021 report from Attorney General Letitia James;

WHEREAS following his receipt of at least $126,000 from the Greater New York Hospital Association and other industry groups, Governor Cuomo granted immunity to hospital and nursing home executives from potential liability related to the COVID-19 pandemic, 

WHEREAS Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor, told state lawmakers, stating that the Department of Health deliberately withheld this data from the Legislature in order to avoid a federal investigation, only for it to later be reported that the Governor’s office removed the number of nursing home deaths from a State Health Department report well before any federal investigation had begun, and a month before the Governor’s book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, was published;

WHEREAS numerous women in and around state government, including former and current executive chamber staff, journalists, and others, have described being sexually harassed or assaulted by Governor Cuomo, harassed by his staff, or been on the receiving end of power abuse at the hands of the Governor, some of which the Governor has not denied, and most of which were contemporaneously recorded;  

WHEREAS Governor Cuomo and his senior staff appear to be engaging in witness tampering, and retaliation against legislators and staff by offering attorneys hired by the Executive Chamber and threatening to release JCOPE documents; 

WHEREAS Governor Cuomo has engaged in too many additional abuses of power and coverups to describe in this resolution, including but not limited to the coverup of structural flaws in the Mario Cuomo Bridge, and the Governor’s abrupt shutdown in 2014 of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, which he had created in 2013, after having hobbled the Commission’s attempts to investigate the Governor or his allies;

BE IT RESOLVED

• The Four Freedoms Democratic Club believes the women who have come forward regarding Governor Andrew Cuomo’s sexual misconduct and creation of a hostile work environment;
  
  
• The Four Freedoms Democratic Club holds Governor Cuomo responsible for the coverup of nursing home deaths caused by his policies, as explained in Attorney General Letitia James’ completed investigation on this issue;
  
  
• The Four Freedoms Democratic Club supports the investigation into Governor Cuomo’s sexual harassment, assault, and retaliation by the Attorney General, and supports the Governor’s due process under the law for any criminal actions that he has taken, but also believes that the Governor’s actions have demonstrated that he no longer deserves the privilege of holding the highest office in the State;
  
  
• The Four Freedoms Democratic Club calls for Andrew Cuomo to immediately resign as governor.