Mayoral candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo took sharp purpose at progressives throughout a Sunday cease on what he hopes will likely be his political comeback tour.
“We are here today for one reason: We love New York, and we know New York is in trouble,” Cuomo mentioned Sunday, a day after he introduced in a video that he’d be coming into the Democratic major for mayor.
“We don’t need stats, you can feel it,” Cuomo mentioned, talking on the New York Metropolis District Council of Carpenters Union Corridor in downtown Manhattan. “When you walk down the street and see the homeless mentally ill. When you walk into the subway and can feel the anxiety rise up in your chest.”
Cuomo added, “These politicians now wanting to be mayor made a terrible, terrible mistake. They uttered the three dumbest words ever uttered by a government official: ‘Cut police funding.’”
Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, enters a crowded subject to problem Mayor Adams, who’s been embroiled in scandals surrounding his federal corruption indictment final September.
It contains together with metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, former Comptroller Scott Stringer, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, former Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake and state Sens. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn and Jessica Ramos of Queens.
Progressive politicians pushed in 2020 for slashing at the least $1 billion from the NYPD’s price range in favor of reallocating extra sources for social providers, after town and the nation was rocked by the police homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Below Adams, crime general dropped this 12 months in contrast with when he took workplace in January 2022, however stays increased than prepandemic charges and compared with all of former Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s eight years in workplace, NYPD information present.
AP Photograph/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Andrew Cuomo speaks with supporters on the New York Metropolis District Council of Carpenters on Sunday. (AP Photograph/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
On Sunday, Cuomo additionally challenged “these democratic socialist candidates that released a wave of antisemitism throughout our city,” referring to 2024 pro-Palestine protests.
The 20,000-member carpenters union made official its endorsement of Cuomo, simply days after Politco reported the labor union would probably line up behind the previous governor.
Cuomo resigned as governor after being accused of sexually harassing 13 ladies, allegations the U.S. Division of Justice’s civil rights division corroborated in a bombshell settlement final 12 months. Cuomo has denied committing any misconduct.
He appeared to obliquely reference the scandal in the course of the Sunday occasion, saying: “You hit a tough spot in life, which is inevitable that something is going to happen, and you hit that tough spot, and you know what? Then you really find out who your friends are.”
He’s additionally confronted harsh criticism over his resolution to understate the variety of New Yorkers who died from COVID-19 in nursing houses within the state after he enacted a coverage in early 2020 prohibiting such amenities from denying entry for residents recognized with the virus.
