Even a career-killing sexual harassment scandal wasn’t enough to make him go away for good.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a return to public life Wednesday, saying he wanted to “move forward” — little more than a year after the threat of all-but-certain impeachment forced him to resign in disgrace.
In an eight-minute video posted online and sent to reporters by his spokesman, Cuomo, 64, stared straight into the camera, jawboning about his brief exile and his plans for the future.
Cuomo, wearing an open-collar dress shirt and jacket, said being forced from office allowed him to spend “time engaging in something called life,” adding with apparently unintended irony: “I had a lot to make up for.”
But without a shred of remorse or apology to his multiple accusers, Cuomo added: “The past few months gave me a new perspective on politics, on people and even on life.”
“I have seen it all: the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.
“I believe at the end of the day, I will be the better for it. And I want to move forward and focus on what is really important.”
Just days before his younger brother, former CNN host Chris Cuomo, is scheduled to start a new job with the low-rated News Nation cable station, Andrew Cuomo said he’s “going to be doing a weekly podcast.”
The former governor claimed that the format of his show “is going to be different,” saying he wanted “to have the conversation with you” but without making clear how that would work with a prerecorded format.
Andrew Cuomo also said he was “starting a political action committee to elect the right people to office,” without naming any names but promising they’d be “people who have the character and the capacity to stand up and lead and take the heat that goes with leadership.”
And in an unexpected swipe at his fellow Democrats, Andrew Cuomo said he was “starting the Gun Safe America Project” because “I do not believe our federal government has the courage or the capacity to make real progress” on the issue of gun control.
“President Biden gave a speech a couple of weeks ago saying he was determined to pass an assault weapons ban,” he said.
“But the Senate just passed the gun bill, and it had no ban and it had no capacity limits. The Democrats wouldn’t even put the bill banning assault rifles on the floor, with Democrats united in support, to show that the Republicans are stopping passage.”
Andrew Cuomo was vague on details of his plan, however, saying only, “I’m excited to tell you more about that soon.”
