Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo teased a potential political bid against current Gov. Kathy Hochul despite opposition from his own party and has argued that "cancel culture" was taking control of Democrats.
The former official's remarks mark his attempt at a comeback after his resignation in the face of several sexual harassment allegations from former aides. Cuomo reluctantly left office last year as he continued to deny the accusations against him and has since gathered support for a possible run against Hochul, who was his former lieutenant governor.
Andrew Cuomo's Return?
Cuomo's aides have also been conducting their own internal voter polling on a potential matchup between him and Hochul. The people involved declined to be named so that they could speak freely about the matter.
The former governor also received calls from allies that urged him to run against Hochul after a recent public poll from Emerson College and The Hill showed that he was only a few points behind the current governor. The survey, which was published last week, showed that the former governor was only four points lagging behind his successor, as per CNBC.
On Thursday, Cuomo gave a campaign-style speech to a friendly audience of roughly 100 people in the Bronx. During his remarks, he blamed cancel culture for his resignation last year and he carried himself like a candidate, posing for pictures with attendees.
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After the speech, reporters asked the former governor if he would once again run for office, to which he replied that he was "open to all options." Cuomo indicated that he was open to potentially gathering enough petition signatures to get on the ballot in the general election, allowing him to bypass the Democratic primary that will be held in June.
According to ABC News, in a statement, Cuomo said that he was knowledgeable of how to get onto the ballot and noted that he has already done it a number of times before. He noted that since the election is still later this year, he still had a lot of time to gather petitions.
Sexual Harassment Scandals
Cuomo is facing several scandals, including his documented sexual harassment of 11 women, misuse of government resources to write his $5 million pandemic memoir and misleading the public about COVID-related deaths in nursing homes.
During the interview, the former governor said that he had been going through a very difficult year and said that he had done a lot of "soul-searching." He noted that he was thankful he had three beautiful daughters and a beautiful family. Cuomo also expressed his pride to have served as New York's governor.
Furthermore, Cuomo said he was open to creating his own political party to run, rather than attempting to secure the Democratic party's spot on the November ballot. His remarks of doing the process before was a reference to his 2014 invention of the "Women's Equality Party."
He also said that his father had done it before, apparently referencing Mario Cuomo's unsuccessful mayoral bid in 1977 while running in the general election on the Liberal Party's line, the New York Post reported.
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