2 years ago
ALBANY, N.Y. — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned more than a year ago after allegations of sexual harassment, said in a video Wednesday that he will start a political action committee “to elect the right people to politics,” form a gun-control group and launch his own weekly podcast.
In the 8-minute recording, the three-term Democratic governor said his time away from public service has given him a fresh perspective on politics, and he’s “very concerned about the state of our country.”
His qualms echo grievances he has aired for years about the extreme nature of political discourse; progressives whose ideals prevent legitimate action; and the evils of social media, which he said Wednesday “has created a political Roman Colosseum that encourages the loud, the mean and the outrageous.”
“We don’t need panderers, we need producers,” he said. “We need people committed to fight for change and who get results. We need people who have the character and capacity to stand up and lead and take the heat that goes with leadership, because that’s the job.
The former governor still had more than $10 million in his campaign account as of the most recent July filing. It was unclear whether he will tap into that fund to start the PAC or create his own fundraising operation.
Cuomo, 64, said that in the little more than a year since he resigned amid multiple sexual harassment allegations, he’s spent a lot of time “engaging in something called life” including time with his family, nature and his car restoration projects.
He has also been aggressively trying to reestablish his reputation by tossing verbal and legal attacksat Attorney General Tish James, whose investigation verified the accusations against him. He was rumored to be considering a run for office this year, but failed to establish a lane for any office by filing deadlines. His successor, Kathy Hochul, is running for a full term in November.
Cuomo said that he is starting a podcast, the second in his family to launch a forum for his independent opinions following public dismissal.
“My intention is to speak the full truth — unvarnished — from the inside out, frank and candid, as a person who has been in the room many times, for many years and knows their games, and as a person who actually did the job,” he said.
“And the first step is to establish the facts,” he added. “Not Democratic facts or Republican facts but actual facts.”
The theme mirrors something his brother, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, is doing from his dining room table in his own comeback bid after he was dismissed from the network for his role in Andrew’s crisis management team amid the unfolding scandals in 2021.
Cuomo also teased something called the “Gun Safe America” project, which he said he will unveiled soon. Cuomo pushed some of the strictest gun safety laws in the nation after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 and has long said New York should be an example for the rest of the country. He does not trust the current Congress or administration to do that, he said.
“I do not believe our federal government has the courage or the capacity to make real progress,” he said, noting that the kind of assault weapons ban his old friend President Joe Bidenis pushing is highly unlikely to get through the U.S. Senate.
English (US)