Washington Post opinion piece urges Democrats not to turn Andrew Cuomo into 'another Al Franken'
'If you want Cuomo gone for good, you need to get the voters on your side first,' Helaine Olen wrote
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An opinion piece published by The Washington Post Tuesday warned Democrats not to turn New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo into "another Al Franken."
Columnist Helaine Olen accused New York Democrats of "plunging the knife" into Cuomo, comparing the situation to the classic Agatha Christie mystery novel "Murder on the Orient Express."
"There’s just one thing: New York voters don’t agree," wrote Olen, who cited a recent Siena College poll. "New York’s Democratic leadership needs to pause and take a deep breath. Otherwise, it risks turning Cuomo into 2021’s version of Al Franken, the former Minnesota senator who became a martyr to supposedly unhinged 'political correctness.' And this is the exact wrong thing to do."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Olen offered a "reminder" that "unlike Franken," Cuomo's political woes did not begin with the sexual misconduct allegations, but rather the scandal over the administration covering up nursing home deaths in the early months of the pandemic.
"This, in turn, seemed to break open a dam of more than a decade’s worth of insider dissatisfaction with Cuomo, a singularly unpleasant political figure who dominated the state by brute force of personality and threats," she explained. "It was only then that the sexual harassment allegations began surfacing."
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The Post columnist then knocked CNN and MSNBC for turning Cuomo "into a resistance and pandemic hero" despite New York having second-highest per capita COVID-19 death rate in the nation. As a result, Olen continued, citing the same Siena poll, a majority of New Yorkers approve of Cuomo's overall handling of the pandemic.
"So let the full investigations and inquiries play out. They are likely to range beyond the sexual harassment allegations and nursing home woes, and take on Cuomo's decade at the top of New York politics. That’s how the process should work," Olen concluded. "Because this is what everyone needs to remember: Politicians are tried not just in legal settings but in the court of public opinion. If you want Cuomo gone for good, you need to get the voters on your side first."