Andrew Cuomo



Andrew Mark Cuomo is the once-hailed now-disgraced ex-Governor of New York state. He served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 until his resignation in August of 2021, mostly due to public backlash against him for alleged numerous instances of sexual harassment.

American nobility
Andrew is the son of Mario Cuomo, who was lieutenant governor for four years and governor for another twelve; Andrew served as his dad's campaign manager. Because history always loves a good joke, Mario was known for something called the "Corona Fighting 69".

COVID-19 pandemic response
In the early days of the pandemic, Cuomo received substantial media attention for his supposed masterful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of New York. From March to June 2020, Cuomo held 111 consecutive televised press conferences, accumulating an audience of over 59 million viewers during which he reported daily positive case totals, his shut-down plans/policies, etc. Cuomo became quickly known for his rather hard-core COVID-19 restrictions, even compared to other Democrat-led states like Colorado and North Carolina, which, of course, drew sharp contrasts to the redder, less-restrictive states like Texas and Florida in the news and social media.

As this was all prior to his numerous scandals being exposed, Cuomo received substantial praise from other Democratic politicians and celebrities for his handling of New York's COVID-19 response.

This supposed leadership led to "Cuomosexual" being an actual thing.

Then came a turn for the worse…

Nursing home scandal
During the early days of COVID, there was some concern that the hospitals were becoming too full. To ensure there was enough room for the most vulnerable people, on March 15th, 2020, Cuomo ordered that the nursing homes must accept any patient that was stable. Nursing homes, mind you, that housed exactly those people who were most at risk from COVID. As absolutely anyone could've guessed, the sick patients spread COVID to the other patients as well as some of the nurses. The number of deaths is now estimated to be twelve thousand. In order to somehow make himself the hero, these deaths were covered up and reports were suppressed.

At best, this was an example of criminal levels of incompetence and utter stupidity. Perhaps Cuomo was terrified of the state budget?

Sexual harassment
Somehow, Cuomo managed to survive the nursing home fiasco, though certainly not untarnished. What ended up putting a halt to his career was the alleged sexual harassment of numerous women in his staff. For unknown reasons, his resignation took place two weeks after it was announced instead of immediately.

Resignation
At first, Cuomo refused to resign as a lot of officials wanted to wait for the Attorney General's report, though many called for his resignation. However, on August 3, 2021, the Attorney General released a report saying that he had sexually harassed 11 women, including some with sexual assault. Many prominent Democrats called for either Cuomo's resignation or impeachment. Governor Cuomo announced on August 10 that he would step down on August 24, as impeachment articles were written up against him. On August 24, Cuomo was replaced by his lieutenant, Kathy Hochul.

When Cuomo left office, he had a record low approval rating of 38% and a disapproval rating of 56%. While that is better than Trump when he left office in January 2021, Cuomo's state is much more politically friendly, with New York being around 60% Democratic, and he only had a 57% approval rating amongst Democrats. As such, his approval rating was a lot lower than it would have been without these scandals. Fifty-five percent of New Yorkers even believed he should be charged with a crime.

Cuomo's Emmy Award
In November 2020, Cuomo was gifted the Founders Award at the 48th International Emmy Awards for his "masterful" press conference presentations. He was stripped of the award in August 2021 following his numerous COVID and sexual scandals.