What’s Next for the Disgraced NY Governor?

CLAY: It’s a word that’s overused, but legitimately blockbuster news if you’re just starting off with us: Andrew Cuomo has resigned from office effective 14 days from now. He did it in an address that was live as we were coming on this program. It has sent shockwaves throughout the Democratic Party nationwide. It certainly has sent shockwaves throughout New York state.

Remember this was a guy who got an Emmy, who was the hero of the initial covid response, who represented everything that Donald Trump supposedly did not in the way that he handled things. There were controversies, body blows that continued to rain down upon him. As you pointed out, Buck Sexton, he got a $5 million book deal to write about the heroic response to covid.

Even in his resignation, he talked about the way that the state of New York had responded to covid and the battles that they had fought. And now the lieutenant governor will be stepping into his office. He was scheduled to have his term end next year. And there are just so many shockwaves emanating here.

As you pointed out, Buck, every Democratic politician ran from him. No one was willing to back him up in the wake of this sexual harassment investigation. And ultimately, he decided maybe the most politically viable move he had left — given that impeachment was coming — was to resign.

BUCK: Indeed. I’m still sitting here… Rarely does it feel like you get a political story with this kind of a jolt and also the fact that they were able to keep this from leaking. Cuomo must have written this final speech. It was probably a number of advisers and confidants you could count on one hand who knew about what was gonna happen here, including his personal attorney, his outside counselor who spoke before he did.

I also want to tell everybody we are gonna get to Senator Rand Paul joining us in the third hour of the show. We’re gonna talk to him, Clay, about just everything covid related, where we are with the vaccine mandates. Dr. Fauci has just straight-up said now he wants vaccine mandates.

Plus, we’ve got the infrastructure bill passing in the Senate. What’s gonna happen now with the $3.5 trillion budget bill? And we’ve got also the judges in D.C. when it comes to Jan. 6, some of them show you where their politics lie. But let’s go to the Mike in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a second here with reaction to this huge story. Mike, what’s up?

CALLER: Hey, Clay and Buck. I absolutely love your guys’ show and think you’re just doing a great job. I appreciate you taking the call.

BUCK: Thank you.

CLAY: Thank you.

CALLER: My idea is that maybe he really doesn’t resign in 14 days. You know, he’s never been trustworthy on anything else and, you know, maybe there’s some emergency, you know, that he can hang back and say, “Oh, covid, you know, requires me to stay in my office.” So I’m not really convinced that, you know, he’s — like you said, Buck, he’s — gonna do the Richard Nixon and go off on the helicopter —

BUCK: That was actually Clay but, yeah.

CALLER: I’m sorry. Clay. (laughing)

CLAY: I don’t think… Yeah, I understand that argument. There are lots of stunning directions that the world of American politics and American life has gone in general. I don’t think, Buck… I would be stunned beyond belief if you can say, “I’m leaving in 14 days,” and then he just doesn’t leave.

BUCK: Yeah, I think, Mike, it’s with me insofar as he’s still shocked.

CLAY: Nothing would surprise me.

BUCK: (laughing) Mike, I think we’re both shocked about this. I’m getting all these text messages. I’m getting text messages from people who all they do is report on New York politics, New York local, New York state, and they’re saying, “I didn’t think he was gonna resign, either.” So it’s a pretty remarkable phenomenon. Mike, thanks for calling in from Ohio. Claire in Florida, what have you got for us, Claire?

CALLER: Good afternoon. Hey, there. I think we should use this Cuomo crap as a learning, teaching pointed for young women to have situational awareness and not go places where they may not be safe and their parents and their educators should teach them this. They need to be aware.

CLAY: I appreciate the call, but I think the perspective would be, you should be safe in the governor’s office, right? You should be safe from sexual harassment in the governor’s office and be able to do your job regardless of whether you’re male or female. And I think even Andrew Cuomo would say that. Now, what Cuomo tried to say is that basically the things that he was doing were generational-in-nature problems.

BUCK: He was saying it was basically like Biden sniffing kids’ heads which is also a little weird.

CLAY: He was a touchy-feely politician, and in his generation that was normal and that circumstances have changed since then. And I think that’s why he laid out his sort of legalistic defense before he resigned, saying, “Hey,” it’s almost like he’s falling on the sword, “I’m doing this because I’m saving the people of New York a bigger problem.”

BUCK: I think it ties into what our friend John in Brooklyn wants to talk to us about. We got another New Yorker. John, what do you think? You shocked? Where’s this going?

CALLER: I’m a little surprised at what happened here today. But, more importantly, you guys had commented. He said he resigned in disgrace. I would take issue with that.

BUCK: I said that, just to be clear. Go ahead.

CALLER: I don’t think these guys feel disgrace. I don’t think they feel any of that. I think that guys like him — could be left or right or Republican or Democrat. But in his case, if he’s gonna stand up and it’s gonna be generational? Well, the last three goes over of New York have resigned in scandal, and all three of them are Democrats. So now do the Democrats own this generational nonsense?

BUCK: You’re talking about Eliot Spitzer and… There’s a long history of disgraced New York politicians. But when I say disgraced, John — and great to have you calling in from Brooklyn — I mean our perception is like the public perception of Cuomo. Whether he feels disgraced or not is a whole other thing. That’s getting a little Freudian. But, Clay, we’ll dive back into this plus everything else we got going on.

CLAY: Everything. By the way, poll questions up. I’m curious what our listeners think about this: Do you believe that Andrew Cuomo will ever run for political office again? You can go vote in that @ClayTravis. I’m curious.