11 August 2021: Will State Assembly continue impeachment proceedings?

Will State Assembly continue impeachment proceedings?

This report presents a broad range of views among New York Assembly members on whether they should continue the body's impeachment proceedings of Andrew M. Cuomo. We've selected several comments to reflect the range of their positions:

It remains to be seen whether the New York State Assembly will continue impeachment proceedings against Andrew Cuomo in light of his resignation Tuesday.

On Monday, Democratic Chairman of the State Assembly Judiciary Committee, Charles Lavine, said “impeachment itself would be moot” if Cuomo resigned prior to proceedings, but there may be a push to continue the impeachment process so that Cuomo would be prohibited from running for office in the State of New York....

New York State GOP Chairman Lick Langworthy released the following statement Tuesday, calling on the legislature to continue and complete the impeachment process:

“New Yorkers can breathe a collective sigh of relief that Andrew Cuomo will no longer be able to wield the immense power of the governor’s office to commit his corruption and abuse, but make no mistake, this resignation is simply an attempt to avoid real accountability for his numerous crimes. Thousands of lives have been destroyed by Andrew Cuomo and the legislature must continue to move forward with impeachment to ensure he can never run for office again."

However, Congressman Brian Higgins doesn't see the value in continuing the impeachment process at this point.

"If the objective of impeachment is to throw you out of office, and you resign from office, what's the purpose of impeachment?" said Higgins. "I don't think anybody want to be dragged through this again. We are all very familiar with the allegations that are deemed to be highly credible based on the investigation of the attorney general, so I think the best thing we can do over the next 14 days is move in a new direction with a new leader..."

Finding ways to pass the buck of responsibility and kicking the can down the road to ignore problems are the only true skill sets for most politicians.