Governor Cuomo threatened to label political opponent a 'child rapist'

A common thread seen in both the nursing home scandal as well as the various sexual harassment allegations is that Andrew Cuomo is leaning on his inner circles to his advantage.

To put it another way: Wall Street Journal today reported that investigators are probing how the New York Governor responded to the situations that have caused controversy, and his patterns of behavior.

New York Assemblyman Ron Kim received personal calls from Cuomo personally to back off once he came out to the New York Post about how the governor’s office was dodging accountability with regards to the state’s pandemic response.

To understand the situation we need to circle back to a February 22nd New York Times report. They interviewed more than three dozen politically connected people who are currently or were formally involved in the New York government scene. A pattern of a “tendency toward aggression” persisted.

To put it another way: Cuomo’s management style utilizes fear. Thus leading to the crux of the story.

“In the fall of 2018, for example, when Mr. Cuomo was told by a leader of the Working Families Party — which had backed his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon — that it would endorse him in the general election because he was better than a Republican [Marc Molinaro], Mr. Cuomo’s response was blunt. ‘If you ever say, ‘Well he’s better than a Republican’ again, then I’m going to say, ‘You’re better than a child rapist,’’ the governor said, according to two people who were on the call. ‘How about that?’”

In another episode: in August 2015 New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett criticized Cuomo for his response to a Legionnaires disease outbreak. In response, Cuomo allegedly threatened New York City Mayor De Blasio over blame for outbreak deaths, if he didn't fire Hinton. De Blasio didn't fire her but they "distanced" City Hall from her comments.

Richard Azzopardi (senior adviser to Cuomo) responded to the New York Times by defending him as a passionate man who has to deal with "disingenuous attacks."

When it comes to the child rapist threat, NBC New York today reported receiving an audio recording of that. Azzopardi addressed it by claiming Cuomo doesn't remember a “three-year-old conversation [that] happened after a very contentious political campaign where things were charged on all sides.”