Even Democrats are criticizing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over his botched handling of the Hoosick Falls water crisis.
Recently disclosed documents proved that Cuomo arrogantly ignored federal findings of polluted water in the rural upstate village.
Foremost among the Democrats turning against Cuomo are both US Senators from New York State, Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillebrand. The Senators, plus Representative Paul Tonko, have called for Congressional hearings into Cuomo’s failure to heed Federal EPA warnings about the village’s water supply.
Schumer in particular was critical of Cuomo.
“We can’t just shrug our shoulders and say ‘oh, bad stuff happened, Schumer told Politico. “We have an obligation to those people, so a hearing is a good thing to find out what happened. But we have to do a lot more than that: water has to be cleaned up, people have to be tested, and whatever remediation occurs has to be done.”
This is not the first time that Schumer has turned on Cuomo.
Most notably, Schumer failed to defend Cuomo when U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, a Schumer protégé, launched an investigation into Mr. Cuomo’s controversial disbanding of the Moreland Commission. Cuomo had created the ethics commission, promising it would be an independent body free to investigate his office, but ended it when the commission set its sights on his own administration.
Perhaps even more telling, a Democratic State Senator, Andrea Stewart-Cousins (Dem.-Yonkers), has called for a Hoosick Falls investigation as well. Just one year ago, no Democratic State Senator—and few Republican State Senators—would have dared to challenge the famously vindictive Cuomo. Now a Democratic Senator has defied Cuomo’s leadership just when he is desperate to sweep the entire matter under the rug.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dismissed news reports about the state’s extended period of inaction in Hoosick Falls as a “political he-said, she-said.” Nevertheless, he cannot ignore attacks from within his own party.
Once upon a time, Cuomo hoped for a keynote speaker position, or even a vice-Presidential nod, from the upcoming Democratic convention. That’s all out the window now.
Oh, how the mighty Cuomo has fallen.
