Ex-New York Gov. Cuomo has warned President Joe Biden will be a weak candidate in 2024 – and demanded someone step up to challenge the 80-year-old in the Democratic primary.
The disgraced governor made the comments on Real Time with Bill Maher, where he claimed he would ‘probably’ be running against his old political ally – had a sex scandal not ended his career.
Appearing alongside his former chief of staff, Cuomo took several swipes at the current president – claiming he caved to ‘fear-driven politics’ when Biden joined the calls for Cuomo to resign in 2021.
He also said he felt the Democrat’s top candidate should have been more supportive since Biden was also accused of assault in 2020, citing the famous incident where he kissed former senate staffer Tara Reade on the back of her head without consent.
In an appearance that saw the Democrat blame ‘cancel culture on steroids’ for his ouster, the politician accused Biden of throwing him under the bus – in what he billed as a bid to draw attention away from the head of state’s own checkered past.
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Ex-New York Gov. Cuomo said President Joe Biden will be a weak candidate for Democrats in the upcoming election during an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday. He demanded someone challenged Biden in the Democratic primary
Appearing alongside his former chief of staff Melissa DeRosa, he also took several swipes at the current president – claiming he caved to cancel culture when Biden joined the calls for Cuomo to resign in 2021
Mentioning the incident where Biden smelt then US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s wife’s hair in 2015, Cuomo told Maher: ‘What Biden’s calculus was – he was accused by Tara Reade, fingers in the vagina, sorry mom.
‘Other women came out, “he smelt my hair,” etc.
‘He wanted quickly to distance himself from this,’ Cuomo continued, calling the situation the ‘ironic’ due to the accuser in that case using the same attorney that one of his did.
That lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, notably dropped Reade as a client in 2020 just two weeks after taking her on, and grilled Cuomo during a 2021 deposition over a female state trooper who said she felt ‘violated’ by Cuomo at a racetrack in 2019 – during which where the ex-governor claimed ‘no memory’ more than 200 times.
Calling cancel culture ‘a loaded gun that can be use[d] against anyone [at] anytime,’ Cuomo insisted: ‘[Biden] could have said, “You know what, I went through this, let’s take a deep breath and actually get the facts before we ask a governor to resign.’
Maher, a staunch progressive, proceeded to ask if Cuomo would be running against Biden if an Attorney General Letitia James-led probe claimed he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women just days before his August 2021 resignation.
A coy Cuomo replied: ‘Probably.’
‘Even with him sitting in office?’ Maher, 67, at that point asked – earning another ‘probably’ from the once-embattled governor.
That’s when Cuomo aired his belief there should be a serious debate before the upcoming general presidential race to potentially put forth a better candidate in what he billed as a limited field of liberals – telling Maher: ‘I think there should be a Democratic primary.’
Maher, a staunch progressive, at at point asked Cuomo would be running against Biden if an Attorney General Letitia James-led probe alleging sexually harassment did not come out days before his August 2021 resignation – to which Cuomo replied: ‘Probably’
The appearance saw the Democrat blame ‘cancel culture on steroids’ for his ouster – and accuse Biden of throwing him under the bus to draw attention away from his own past
Once a staunch ally of the former New York governor, Biden famously turned on his old friend when joined the chorus of calls for him to resign in 2021
In 2020, ex-Senate staffer Tara Reade, 59, accused Joe Biden of assault, alleging he kissed her without consent in 1993. The case has since been ‘litigated,’ per the White House. Her lawyer at the time represented one of Cuomo’s accusers, and dropped her as a client after two weeks
The native New Yorker went on to provide ‘two reasons’ that he said supported his desire.
The first, he said, was: ‘I don’t know that candidate Biden is the strongest candidate we can put up.’
‘Frankly,’ he said, ‘I doubt it.’
‘Secondly, and even more importantly,’ Cuomo continued, was his belief that ‘the Democratic party has to engage with real people and real voters on a different level.’
He explained: ‘I think they are too much in Washington and too much, “Trump is no good and Trump is a bum.”‘
He went on to declare: ‘You can’t run on banking that the other guy is going to lose’ – advising instead, ‘You have to have an affirmative strategy to win.’
Cuomo proceeded to map out what he called ‘a paralysis’ of the current government – before eventually slamming ‘Defund the Police’ as the ‘three dumbest words ever uttered by the Democratic Party.’
He told Maher: ‘You have social division – political polarization equals government paralysis – and that is on the ground, and they have to see that.
Cuomo resigned a little over two years ago when James’ reports accused him of sexual harassment and other transgressions
Also on the show was Cuomo’s right hand DeRosa was named in a suit filed by one of Cuomo’s accusers last year, which alleges she and two other aides ‘aided and abetted’ the former governor’s lewd and discriminatory behavior before he was forced to resign in 2021
Lindsey Boylan (left) said Cuomo harassed her with inappropriate remarks then launched a smear campaign against her when she quit in 2018. Brittany Commisso (right) says Cuomo groped her breast in his office in November 2020
This is part of Cuomo’s 500 page deposition. He strongly denied ever cupping Commisso’s breasts or touching her buttocks
‘They have to answer voters who on the way to the studio today were passing these tent cities for homeless people,’ Cuomo added, mentioning the state of the streets right outside in Los Angeles.
‘Are we at [a] studio set? [Or] is this a science fiction movie?’ Cuomo asked.
‘Yes we want to help homeless mentally ill people -they have civil rights – I get that,’ he conceded. ‘But they have human rights – and this is the way we treat [them]: You can sleep on the sidewalk and you can eat from the garbage.’
He added ‘we have a real crime problem in this nation as well,’ mentioning the recent unrest surrounding police over the past few years after the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd.
‘Everybody hates police yes,’ Cuomo admitted, before adding: [But] you need better police and better-trained police.’
Briefly addressing his scandal – and how he avoided criminal prosecution after five district attorneys investigated allegations by 11 women that he either groped or acted inappropriately toward aides while in office – he said: ‘Eleven cases trigger the cancel culture.
Commisso’s claim was the most serious of all of the allegations listed in an AG-led report into Cuomo’s alleged behavior – which never led to a conviction
‘Everyone has to be first before they get accused by a women’s group of not moving fast enough.’
He concluded: ‘President of the United States within hours says you have to resign… and then now it’s dominoes among the Democrats.’
‘This cancel culture is a loaded gun and they can use it against anyone anytime, even for their own self-interest.’
Cuomo resigned a little over two years ago after Attorney General James’ reports.