9 February 2022: Cuomo Encouraged to Run for Office by Former Press Secretary

Run, Andrew, run: Cuomo — and those who see him as a serial harasser — should welcome him diving back into politics

This op-ed by Karen Hinton, the former press secretary to Andrew M. Cuomo when he served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration, challenges Cuomo to run. Because as she uniquely argues, how else can Cuomo learn how big a loser he has become?

Run, Andrew, run. That’s my advice to the former New York governor who may be considering rehabilitating his ruined political career by running for either governor (again) or attorney general (again). In a jaw-dropping interview with Laura Nahmias of Bloomberg News, Andrew Cuomo channeled Humphrey Bogart as Capt. Queeg, complete with the click-clack of balls, as he painted himself a victim of conspiracies by a cabal of powerful rivals intent on mounting a coup to bring him down. Cuomo boldly announced that the 11 women whose accusations formed the basis of findings by state Attorney General Tish James that Cuomo had “violated multiple federal and state harassment laws” are now “zero.” Cuomo claims “vindication.”

Vindicated by whom exactly? Well, by himself, of course, and his attorneys, paid with taxpayer and campaign funds. Cuomo derided the Joon Kim-Anne Clark report, issued by the attorney general, as a “brand of ugly politics like I had never seen before,” sounding very similar to the two young brothers who murdered their parents, throwing themselves on the mercy of the court because they had become orphans. In other words, no one had an uglier brand of politics than Cuomo. He likely recognizes that the true reparation of his shattered image can only come from the voters, not self-proclamations by him or his minions or even New York district attorneys, claiming they will “lose” in court even with “credible” victims.

But Cuomo also must know that if you put all the chips on the table, and lose, there is no coming back; his reputation as an offender will be written in stone by millions of New Yorkers if he is rejected at the polls.

I say go for it, governor. The district attorneys who decided not to press criminal charges deprived Cuomo of his day in court, so he should submit himself to adjudication by the voters.

People magazine presented a profile on Hinton on 28 January 2022. She is one of Cuomo's accusers for alleged sexual harassment cases that pre-date Cuomo's tenure as New York's governor that were not included in the New York state attorney general's report. She has written a book containing descriptions of those incidents among other stories, which is why People interviewed her.