Democrat New York State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara told “Special Report” Thursday that “there is a dark cloud over the State Capitol” as long as Gov. Andrew Cuomo remains in office.
SANTABARBARA: We have a governor that’s just not focusing on leading the state. He’s focusing on making phone calls, trying to pressure people to support him, he’s leaking sensitive personnel files. He is in crisis response mode. If you look at his press conferences, he has completely closed them off from the press at this point. Very little questions he’s answered on the nursing home scandal, which is something that is also very, very serious in addition to the [sexual harassment] allegations.
This past week we’ve seen more bipartisan calls for his resignation, but I don’t believe that this governor will resign without impeachment on the table. It’s time to talk about options. The most direct action we can take is to put the articles of impeachment forward, and he should really think about what he’s putting this state through, and the people of the state through by not resigning.
These are issues that are not going away. These are issues that the governor doesn’t want to talk about. A simple fact is this: He is not holding himself accountable, and the excuses he’s given us have made no sense. We have seen members of our own legislature that have resigned, and he’s called for zero tolerance, he knows the policies on sexual harassment. These latest allegations are actually sexual assault, now the Albany police department is involved, and he wants to buy himself time by saying, ‘Let’s wait for the report, let’s wait for the facts, these are political moves.’
He wants to stay in office. The simple fact is we have an FBI investigation going on, DOJ, the [state] attorney general is doing an investigation, and he’s already tried to interfere with that, right from the very start. He will use his power, as he’s done in the past, to try and control, manipulate, and interfere. The longer he stays in office, the more he will do that. We simply cannot allow him to stay in office. These investigations certainly must go forward, they must be completed, but I believe he cannot be in office while that is happening.
