On Sunday, President Joe Biden tentatively dipped his toe into the scandal surrounding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying that people should reserve judgment until the facts are out.
“I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us,” he said, according to Fox News.
But Rep. Elise Stefanik said his refusal to take a stand on it was unacceptable, calling him “complicit” in the cover-up.
“As bipartisan calls for Governor Cuomo’s resignation and impeachment at the federal and state levels continue to grow, President Biden has the responsibility to stand up for the American people and all New Yorkers” Stefanik said in a written statement released on Monday.
“Yesterday’s statement makes it clear that the President of the United States is complicit in the coverup of Governor Cuomo’s criminal conduct including repeated sexual abuse,” she continued. “I am publicly calling on President Biden to demand Governor Cuomo’s immediate resignation and removal from office.”
Stefanik referenced not only the seven accusers who have leveled serious and credible allegations against Cuomo, but also the decision to summarily execute some 15,000 innocent nursing-home residents by forcing healthy residents to co-mingle with coronavirus-infected patients.
At least four law-enforcement agencies are now involved in building cases against him, she noted: the FBI, the US Justice Department, New York’s Attorney General’s Office and the Albany Police Department.
The probes include “obstruction of justice, a corruption and coverup scandal that resulted in the deaths of thousands of seniors in New York’s nursing homes, and for numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual grooming, sexual assault, and workplace retaliation,” she said.
“Governor Cuomo is unable to effectively govern,” she added.
It comes as little surprise that Biden—after having ducked accountability on several major scandals of his own during the campaign season—has been reluctant to assert his moral authority.
Many Democrats drew criticism and charges of hypocrisy for defending him against the sexual-assault allegations of former congressional staffer Tara Reade, as well as the disturbing accounts of his unwelcome verbal and physical interactions with married and unmarried women, young girls and boys.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Left’s efforts to smear Republican figures like Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh with uncorroborated accusations, their eagerness to forgive Biden seemed disingenuous at best.
Stefanik said that the Biden administration, less than two months in, already had failed to live up to the bar it set for high ethical standards and accountability.
“President Joe Biden has failed the American people and New Yorkers who demand transparency, accountability, and good government,” she said.
“President Biden has failed to live up to his own standards of zero tolerance for sexual harassment, sexual grooming, sexual abuse, and sexual assault,” she continued. “Rather than hold elected officials to the highest standards of ethical conduct, President Biden has prioritized partisan politics over the overwhelming and unified bipartisan calls for Governor Cuomo’s immediate resignation.”
