Photo: Patrick Cashin/Wikimedia Commons
Eric Dezenhall, noted D.C. crisis management expert and author of the new novel ‘False Light,’ published a column in RealClearPolitics today offering insight into the ongoing scandal surrounding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo has been hit with two scandals in the last few weeks regarding COVID deaths inside nursing homes and multiple women who have accused him of sexual harassment.
“On the timing side, Cuomo was puffed up during the early stages of the COVID pandemic not for his charm but because he provided a seemingly cogent and competent foil to President Donald Trump’s colossal buffoonery in the face of the crisis,” Mr. Dezenhall wrote.
But now that Trump is out of office, he continued, “the rifle scope must go somewhere,” in this case the women who have alleged at inappropriate behavior from Cuomo. This has led to the media that spent much of the last year praising Cuomo to quickly turn on him, exacerbating the already damning scandal regarding the nursing homes. Between COVID and the allegations, Mr. Dezenhall wrote that the governor may not be able to endure a drawn out firestorm.
“If I were to make a prediction, it would be that Cuomo doesn’t weather this one long-term. The people of New York are in a terrible mood and very few constituencies have a vested interest in keeping him,” Mr. Dezenhall wrote. “He’s been in office for more than a decade now. And in an age when progressives are confronting the consequences of a movement they initiated, Cuomo’s alleged behavior is a hard cause to rally behind.”
