‘What they couldn’t do with the law’
Ex-gov rails against ‘cancel culture’ at fi rst public speech in Bklyn church
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 11-17, 2022 45
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Former Gov. Andrew
Cuomo blamed “cancel culture”
for his own resignation
last year during a speech at a
Brooklyn church on March 6
— his fi rst public address since
he stepped down last year.
The former state chief executive
said James’s investigation,
which detailed sexual
misconduct allegations
against Cuomo by 11 women,
amounted to overturning an
election, even though he voluntarily
chose to step down
last August rather than face
Assembly impeachment proceedings.
“They wanted to do with
politics that which they
couldn’t do with the law. They
used cancel culture to effectively
overturn an election,”
Cuomo told congregants of
the God’s Battalion of Prayer
church in East Flatbush.
During his nearly halfhour
remarks, Cuomo noted
that district attorneys from
around the state declined to
press charges based on the
James investigation.
Four of the prosecutors
publicly said they found the
allegations credible or they believed
the victims, but added
that the evidence was not
enough to prove accusations
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The last DA to drop his
case, upstate Oswego’s Gregory
Oakes, made such a conclusion
about an allegation
that Cuomo touched the chest
of National Grid employee Virginia
Limmiatis in 2017, the
New York Post reported, but
the prosecutor emphasized:
“In no way should this be a
positive refl ection on Andrew
Cuomo. This decision is not
an exoneration,” according to
Oakes. Still, the ex-governor
said on Sunday that the DA
decisions vindicated him.
“What does it mean that
six district attorneys from all
across the state, Democrats
and Republicans, male and
female, black and white, tens
of millions of dollars spent
in investigations — your
money, not theirs — and they
didn’t fi nd a single case? So
11 months later, the truth is
known,” Cuomo said.
The Sunday screed, broadcast
on Cuomo’s campaign,
website comes after the former
governor launched a
statewide ad blitz last Monday
trying to revive his public
image using the same
arguments about the DAs declining
to prosecute him.
His campaign has spent
$1.27 million on the advertising
packages so far, according
to ad tracking company
AdImpact.
On Sunday, he was introduced
by church pastor Reverend
Alfred Cockfi eld II,
who described Cuomo as “special
guest” and as a “friend.”
“He’s a friend. I’ve never
turned my back on friends,”
said Cockfi eld.
Cuomo, in 2021, appointed
the clergyman to the board
of the Long Island Power Authority,
and the pol previously
used the church’s dais
to rail against decaying conditions
at NYCHA developments
in 2018.
The ex-governor started
his speech at the central
Brooklyn house of worship
reiterating apologies for his
behavior which he said failed
to keep up with social norms
that “evolved quickly,” but he
again denied any wrongdoing.
The bombshell investigation
released in August includes
allegations varying
from making inappropriate
comments to more serious
charges, such as groping former
staffer Brittany Commisso
at the Governor’s Mansion
on late 2020.
Cuomo previously blamed
“cancel culture” in March of
2021, when numerous prominent
New York Democrats
called for him to step down as
more and more women came
forward with misconduct accusations
against the oncepowerful
politician.
Cuomo, who has said he
wouldn’t rule out a run for
offi ce, didn’t make any announcements
at the service,
but he warned of “infi ghting”
among Democrats providing
an opening for Donald
Trump. He ended his speech
sounding like he was in campaign
mode, citing a famous
phrase by late civil rights activist
and Georgia Congressman
John Lewis.
“Let’s make some trouble,
let’s make some good travel,
and let’s make this date the
greatest state in the nation,”
Cuomo said.
Andrew Cuomo speaks at God’s Battalion
of Prayer Church. Screenshot
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