Samantha Bee admits she didn't want to challenge 'hero' narrative about Andrew Cuomo last year

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"Full Frontal" host Samantha Bee admitted in a new podcast interview that she knew her audience did not want to hear disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was an "a--hole" because he was a "hero" and "dad" to many at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The staunchly left-wing Bee told "Sway" podcast host Kara Swisher she'd had "show-wide conversations" about the "super problematic" governor last year, but the team decided it wasn't the right time to share that information with their audience. She argued her audience would not have received any scandals well because at that time Cuomo was one of few leaders giving daily updates about the pandemic and many considered him a "hero" and even their "dad."

Cuomo's leadership at the beginning of the pandemic was heralded as the "gold standard" by then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, and marveled at by much of the media. But, his star fell quickly after revelations about his nursing home COVID-19 policies and a subsequent cover-up of deaths, as well as multiple women accusing the governor of sexual harassment this year. A report from the office of state Attorney General Letitia James' concluded Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women from 2013 to 2020.

"So it’s not like — I was not a Cuomosexual, particularly," Bee said. "And there were many, many times, actually, during the pandemic, where we had big, you know, show-wide conversations about, how do we handle Cuomo? Because he’s super problematic. But the story about him out in the world was like, he’s a hero. And he’s the only person speaking about the pandemic in a fatherly way. And he is our dad and whatever." 

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"And so it felt [like] a place where it wasn’t quite the time to be like, hey, just like, check it out, he’s actually an a**hole," she continued. "We felt like we would just miss completely with our audience. And people weren’t really there to hear that at that moment, so —"

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned this year from office with more than a year left in his third term.

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Bee didn't hesitate when asked for her opinion of the former governor, who resigned in August, saying he's an "a--hole." She also told Swisher that she's learned not to hold anyone up as a hero, suggesting most are likely to disappoint. Bee has done numerous sycophantic interviews with prominent Democrats, however, such as former President Barack Obama, then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

The "Full Frontal" host used the same expletive for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and spoke at length with Swisher about the comeback of New York City following a tumultuous year battling the coronavirus. But she had a message for unvaccinated Americans wishing to visit the Empire State: "Stay the f--- away."

Swisher previously interviewed comedian Chelsea Handler, a confirmed former "Cuomosexual" who revealed Cuomo once ghosted her when they were supposed to go on a date, about what she thinks of Cuomo now. Her crush on the ex-governor, she told Swisher, was "over."

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Before admitting how her show handled Cuomo, Bee previously admitted she tends to go easy on President Joe Biden after years of using him for punchlines. She told Swisher, however, that she doesn't "miss" Donald Trump and that her comedy is "better without him."