Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) announced on Saturday that he is throwing his hat in the ring to be the next mayor of New York City.
The announcement from Cuomo comes after he was forced to resign in 2021 over allegations of sexual harassment from roughly a dozen women — which he strongly denied.
“Today, our New York City is in trouble,” he said in his announcement video. “You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person, or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway. You see it in the empty store fronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence. The city just feels threatening, out of control, and in crisis. These conditions exist not as an act of God, but rather as an act of our political leaders, or more precisely, the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders.”
He championed leftist causes, including gun control, “LGBTQ” rights, green energy, and touted achievements like the renovation of La Guardia Airport.
Cuomo spoke at length about the city’s crime problems, saying that Democrats who championed the “defund the police” movement needed to stop.
“We must acknowledge the simple truth that they are just plain wrong, deadly wrong,” he said. “They set us back, and we must now return to actually fighting crime.”
He said that the city needed a significant increase in its police force and needed to show more force in the subways to stop the crime problem that has plagued the public transportation system in recent years.
Cuomo spoke out strongly against anti-Semitism that has erupted in recent years, but, unlike more woke Democrats, did not mention anything about Islamophobia — a sign that he is appealing to more moderates and maybe even some more conservative voters in the city.
The most shocking moment of the video came when he touted his response to the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that he “led the country” despite his widely criticized response, including his nursing home scandal.
“Did I always do everything right in my years of government service? Of course not,” he said. “Would I do some things differently, knowing what I know now? Certainly. Did I make mistakes? Some painfully, definitely, and I believe I learned from them, and that I am a better person for it, and I hope to show you that every day, but I promise you this: I know what needs to be done, and I know how to do it, and I will give it my all to get the job done, and it will get done.”
WATCH:
Our city is in crisis. That’s why I am running to be Mayor of New York City. We need government to work. We need effective leadership. https://t.co/a0vVYRF4iP pic.twitter.com/JIrhD1Edqs
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) March 1, 2025
