Hochul, who will be the state’s first female governor, said she had not been previously aware of the allegations against Cuomo in State Attorney General Letitia James‘ investigation. She also vowed to remove people from the administration who have been named as doing anything unethical in the report.
Hochul promised she would “fight like hell” for all New Yorkers and noted that the fight against COVID-19 is far from finished.

She said she and Cuomo did not have a close relationship and when asked if she would consider pardoning him if he was convicted on any potential criminal charges, she replied it was “far too premature to even have those conversations.”

Hochul also said it’s “not the purview of the New York state governor to dictate to the New York state Assembly or to the Judiciary Committee on what actions they should take next with respect to anything, particularly impeachment.”

Meanwhile, State Senator George Borrello is calling on the New York Assembly to continue its impeachment inquiry of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

He said Cuomo needs to be held accountable for the allegations of sexual harassment, his administration’s cover-up of COVID deaths in nursing homes and his improper use of state resources to produce a book about his handling of the COVID crisis.

Borrello said the impeachment trial should also include a stipulation that Cuomo is no longer able to hold elected office in New York State.

Cuomo, a Democrat, said his resignation will take effect in 14 days ending a decade-long run in the office, first as an adviser to his father, the late Governor Mario Cuomo, before winning three terms himself.

With Cuomo stepping down, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul of Buffalo will make history as the first woman to serve as New York governor. She will be sworn in after Cuomo’s resignation takes effect and is set to fill out the remainder of his term, which runs through 2022.

The announcement comes after State Attorney General Letitia James released on August 3rd the results here of a five-month independent investigation that concluded he had engaged in conduct that violated U.S. and state laws.

The investigation, detailed in a 168-page report, found that Cuomo groped, kissed or made suggestive comments to women including current and former government workers – one a state trooper – and retaliated against at least one woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. Cuomo denied wrongdoing.

Cuomo’s resignation marks the second time in 13 years that a New York governor has stepped down in scandal, after Eliot Spitzer quit in 2008 over his patronage of prostitutes.
His resignation spared Cuomo from possible removal from office through impeachment proceedings in the state legislature. An ongoing impeachment investigation had only promised to intensify.

The civil investigation found that the actions of Cuomo and his senior advisers violated multiple state and federal laws, but James did not pursue criminal charges. Local prosecutors are free to do so, meaning Cuomo still could face legal jeopardy.

Local prosecutors in Manhattan, Nassau County, Albany County and Westchester County said after the report’s release that they are looking into the matter and have requested evidence from the independent inquiry. New York City’s mayor said Cuomo should face criminal charges.

Cuomo had for months denied mounting allegations of sexual harassment – and renewed those denials after the investigative report was issued. But what was left of his political support crumbled after the findings were made public. Hours later, Biden – a friend of the governor for years – told reporters at the White House here “I think he should resign.”

Other prominent Democrats including the New York’s two U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi also lined up in calling on the party’s one-time star to resign.

Investigators here concluded that Cuomo and his aides created a “toxic” and “hostile” workplace in an office gripped by bullying, fear and intimidation. The complaints about sexual harassment emerged after broader criticism by Democratic politicians in New York that Cuomo governed through intimidation.

At least 86 of the body’s 150 members have said publicly or told The AP that they favored initiating the process of ousting the third-term Democratic governor if he doesn’t quit. It takes a simple majority to authorize an impeachment trial.

Assembly Democrats, who lead the chamber, debated virtually for hours Tuesday about whether to impeach the governor now, wait to see whether he resigns, or give the Judiciary Committee time to wrap up its wide-ranging investigation into topics from sexual misconduct to the Cuomo administration’s months-long obfuscation of the total number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19.
At least 40 Democrats back starting impeachment proceedings if Cuomo doesn’t leave on his own.

The 150-member Assembly would need 76 votes to impeach Cuomo and send articles of impeachment to the Senate. The Assembly includes 106 Democrats, 43 Republicans and one Independent.
Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay urged Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, to convene an emergency special session to vote to impeach Cuomo.

Heastie said he wants to conclude the Assembly’s investigation as quickly as possible. Judiciary committee members Tom Abinanti and Phil Steck variously estimated the timeframe at weeks or a month.

The two Democrats said that some lawmakers want to vote for impeachment within days, but time is needed to build a strong case for a Senate trial.

If the Assembly votes to impeach, the state Senate could launch an impeachment trial in weeks. Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris told The Associated Press the chamber has been preparing for months, saying, “We’ll be ready to go if and when the impeachment articles are sent over,” he said. “It could happen very quickly.”

# # #

At least four district attorneys offices in New York have requested additional investigative information from the state’s probe into sexual harassment allegations against Governor Andrew Cuomo.

CNN is reporting the DAs are saying they need the materials to determine whether incidents that occurred in their jurisdictions amount to criminal actions.

The investigation’s report, released Tuesday by state Attorney General Letitia James, found that Cuomo harassed 11 women, including current and former state employees, as well as women outside of state government. Investigators repeatedly described Cuomo’s conduct as “unlawful,” though a footnote in the report said that it was not reaching a conclusion as to “whether the conduct amounts to or should be the subject of criminal prosecution.”

But shortly after the report’s findings were released, Albany County’s district attorney said his office would be requesting investigative materials obtained by James, while the offices for district attorneys in Westchester County, Nassau County and Manhattan made similar announcements Wednesday.
Cuomo has denied the investigation’s findings and has shown no willingness to resign over them. He has frequently accused the probe as being politically motivated.

# # #

Meanwhile, a Marist poll done Tuesday night found that 59% of New Yorkers, including 52% of registered Democrats, think Governor Andrew Cuomo should resign from office in light of the results of the independent investigation which found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women.

32% report Cuomo should serve out the rest of his term. If Cuomo does not resign, 59% of New Yorkers say the New York State Legislature should impeach him.

Marist Poll Director Dr. Lee Miringoff said “The court of public opinion believes the allegations against Governor Cuomo warrant his removal from office. If he does not resign nearly six in ten New Yorkers believe he should be impeached. Even if he survives this scandal, his reelection prospects are rock bottom with even his Democratic base deserting him.”

Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) talks with regional media to share his thoughts on the impeachment of President Donald Trump while also answering questions from the media.

Tom Reed

Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has been impeached for a second time, now becoming the only U.S. President to hold that dubious distinction.

On Wednesday members of the House sped to a vote on impeachment just a week after president Trump encouraged supporters to “fight like hell” against the November election results, and then a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The impeachment also comes just one week before his term is set to end and President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Late Wednesday afternoon the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump, with 10 Republicans joining the vast majority of Democrats in the effort.  During debate on the articles of impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) asked Republicans and Democrats to “search their souls” ahead of the historic afternoon vote.

“We know that we faced enemies to the Constitution. We know that we experienced the insurrections that violated the sanctity of the People’s capitol and attempted to overturn the duly recorded will of the American People. And we know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion, against our common country. He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love,” Pelosi said.

Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) also spoke and admonished those who participated in the raid, saying violence is never a legitimate form of protest. And while he didn’t support the impeachment effort, he did acknowledge that it was the supporters of the president – and not anyone else – who was to blame for the raid.

“Some say the riots were caused by Antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that and Conservatives should be the first to say so,” McCarthy said.

Tom Reed

While many members of the House did speak during the lengthy debate on Wednesday, local Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning) did not. But he did hold a press call with regional media on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

“There have been numerous other issues that I’ve been attending to as we speak and my comments on impeachment have been widely reported and widely known, so I don’t anticipate I will be given floor comments on this issue,” he told Reporters on Wednesday, less than two hours before the impeachment vote took place.

The New York Times published an op/ed by Reed on Tuesday, where he called for the censure of the president, rather than impeachment. He said he was against impeachment because he knew it would be a rushed process with just seven days remaining in the president’s term.

“I think snap impeachment is not the way to go and not substantively the right thing to do in regards to not having an investigation, not respecting due process rights, and not respecting and debating the issues of Constitutional free speech that is involved here. And also the division and anger that is being exacerbated by this snap impeachment can not be underestimated,” Reed said.

The impeachment proceedings came one week after a violent, pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol, sending lawmakers into hiding and hindering the nation’s long history of peaceful transfers of power.  The riot has also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.

The impeachment in the House now leads to a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to remove the president from office.

Trump has been at this point before. The House impeached him in late 2019 for his pressure campaign on Ukraine and the Senate ultimately voted to acquit after quickly rushing through the trial process without calling any witnesses.  This time, the trial process is expected to be far more extensive with Democrats controlling the Senate.

Even if found guilty, the actual removal of Trump is highly unlikely before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Biden. But some say that the Senate trial – whenever it takes place – is still necessary in order to lay out all the evidence against the President and his alleged involvement in the insurrection and putting it on the public, and historic, record. A guilty verdict could also lead to Trump never being able to hold office again.

Tom Reed

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) joined several of his Republican colleagues and even some Democrats on Tuesday to introduce a concurrent resolution to “censure the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, for attempting to unlawfully overturn the 2020 Presidential election and for violating his oath of office on January 6th, 2021.”

The Censure measure is being presented as an alternative to House Democrats’ effort to impeach the president for a second time on a single charge of “incitement of insurrection.”

The dueling resolutions are being presented less than one week after President Trump encouraged a mob of loyalists to “Stop the Steal” and “fight like hell” against election results. Soon after his speech, the U.S. Capitol became the target of a deadly siege that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police Officer and four Trump supporters.

While the first impeachment of Trump in 2019 brought no Republican votes in the House, a small number of leaders and other lawmakers are breaking with the party to join Democrats. But a majority of the Party – including Reed – say they won’t vote to impeach.

“If our leaders make the wrong decision in how to hold him accountable, it could damage the integrity of our system of justice, further fan the flames of division, and disillusion millions of Americans ─ all while failing to accomplish anything,” Reed said in an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Tuesday. “Given the tools that lie before Congress, it is clear that pursuing impeachment only days before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated is not the answer.”

Democrat and Republican Members of the U.S. Senate are convinced that the House’s impeachment efforts will almost certainly result in a second acquittal of President Trump, which even some Democrats say would even further divide and inflame tensions in our nation.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) stated, “…it is clear the 25th Amendment will not be invoked and that the Senate will not convict the president after impeachment. A censure resolution is the only way to send a bipartisan, bicameral message without delay to the country and the world that the United States is a nation of laws.”

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) also stated that the House’s current impeachment approach “is so ill-advised for Joe Biden to be coming in, trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people when we are going to be so divided and fighting again.”

According to those who support censure, there are two constitutional purposes of impeachment: 1) removal from office, and 2) barring the future holding of office and the current approach being advanced by House leadership is certain to accomplish neither one of these. As a result, they are pushing instead for censure.

“[Censure] is an important step to hold the President accountable. Congress must make clear that it rejects extremism and condemns the President’s actions,” said Reed. “We will continue to push for Congressional leaders to work with us on investigating the events surrounding this dark period in our history and make sure it never happens again with the public’s trust in our democratic institutions restored.”

Meanwhile, the four-page impeachment resolution relies on Trump’s own incendiary rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden’s election victory, including organizing a White House rally on the same day Congress was to certify Biden’s election. Some of those who attended the rally also participated in the raid on the Capitol following Trump’s speech, and supporters of impeachment say the speech was intended to whip his supporters into a frenzy just as members of congress took up the certification issue.

The House tried first to push Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to intervene, passing a resolution Tuesday night calling on them to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump from office. But Pence made it clear he would not do so. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pence said it was “time to unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden.”

The President, meanwhile, insisted on Tuesday that he believes he bears no responsibility for the insurrection carried out by his supporters and has yet to explicitly call on them to refrain from launching another assault on the Capitol.

In 2017 a group of residents stood at the corner of Main and Second Streets in downtown Jamestown, next to the building that houses Congressman Tom Reed’s office, to voice their concerns with recent news coming out of Washington involving President Trump. Another Impeachment rally is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 17, 2019 at the same location.

JAMESTOWN – On Tuesday, December 17 at 4:30 p.m., the night before the U.S. House of Representatives votes to Impeach President Donald Trump, a group of concerned citizens will gather outside congressman Tom Reed’s (R-Corning, NY 23) district office at 2nd and Main as part of the nationwide “Nobody Is Above the Law” rallies.

Following the rally at Congressman Reed’s office, participants will then march to Dow Park at W. 6th and Washington.

The event in Jamestown will be one of the hundreds of actions occurring nationwide in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The local event is being organized by Chautauqua Progressive Action and is part of a massive, grassroots effort across the country to ensure Congress holds Trump accountable for using military aid to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the U.S. presidential 2020 elections. Protesters will demand that the House of Representatives fulfills its constitutional duty by impeaching Trump and that the Senate remove him from office for attempting to rig the 2020 elections.

“Congress must show that no one—including the criminal in the White House—is above the law,” organizers stated in a media release sent out Tuesday morning.

Activists will use hashtag #NotAboveTheLaw to engage communities on social media. Information about other events can be found at Impeach.org.

Chautauqua Progressive Action is a grassroots group of concerned citizens formed in 2017 and committed to promoting progressive values through social and political action. Participants from nearby Cattaraugus and Warren counties are also expected to join the Jamestown march.

Congressman Tom Reed held a Town Hall Meeting in Falconer on Thursday night, Nov. 7, 2019 with about 40 local residents in attendance.

FALCONER – About 40 people were at the Town of Ellicott Municipal Building in Falconer Thursday to attend a Town Hall Meeting with Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23).

Topics that were discussed included the Mexico-Canada trade agreement, clean and renewable energy initiatives and impeachment. The last topic created the most contentious back-and-forth between the Congressman and attendees, with some raising their voices at times and interrupting Reed as he explained why he doesn’t support the impeachment process against President Trump.

During the opening remarks of the meeting, Reed, a 5-term republican congressman from Corning- reiterated his views on the issue of impeaching president Trump.

“Right now the topic of the day is impeachment. Impeachment has taken up the airwaves and kind of taken up the oxygen in the room. As I have publicly stated and I will state here again, I do not support the impeachment process. I don’t support the inquiries,” Reed said. “When you look at impeachment, the lessons of President Clinton, the lessons of President Nixon, and when impeachment is employed historically we’re talking about the overturning a duly held election in America. Going down the path, in my opinion, is not warranted.”

Following his opening remarks, it was another 20 minutes or so before impeachment was brought up again. But once it was, the issue took up the vast remainder of the hour-long meeting with Reed and attendees trading remarks on the matter, often times talking over each other in the process.

Most of those in attendance appeared to disagree with Reed about the impeachment issue. But while Reed was unable to convince many in the room that Impeachment is unwarranted, there was some agreement when it came to U.S. troops in Syria, when Reed explained that he has always been against any president using military forces without first consulting with Congress and has pushed for that Congressional approval despite it not being a popular sentiment.

“I can tell you the conversations that are occurring on the floor of the house. ‘Tom, why do you keep advocating for a politically toxic vote that you would have to take if you’re going to put men and women into war zones?’ I said to them to their face, ‘If you’re telling me that we’re going to ask men and women of the military to risk their physical lives in terms of a mission that we’re asking them to do, I can risk my political life in regards to taking that vote up or down,” Reed said, followed by applause from those in attendance.

Congressman Tom Reed listens as a member of the audience discusses the issues of impeachment during the Nov. 7 Town Hall Meeting in Falconer.

Following the meeting, we asked Reed for his reaction to the response he got from those in attendance as well as if there were any takeaways from the hour-long conversation.

“There’s a lot of passion out there in America today and obviously you saw some of that displayed today. But I think we had a good conversation on Syria and it was good to see people recognized where we are coming from,” Reed said. “But overall this is what it’s all about – just continuing to be accessible and they now know the people behind the voices and faces in the office so they can feel comfortable giving us a call.”

Meanwhile Reed was in Jamestown earlier in the day to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony that was held at the Chautauqua Center on Institute St.

Reed said the new medical center will improve the quality of health care in the Jamestown area.

“They’re having 200 patients a day coming through there and that integrated care model is something I’m a big fan. Where you have easy access to all the care, to get all the concerns when somebody walks into a doctor’s office or a provider’s office, one location to take care of all the problems to the best extent possible,” Reed said.

The new facility was made possible with federal and state grants that were secured, in part, through the work of Reed’s office along with that of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

For more information, visit thechautauquacenter.org.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats will hold a vote Thursday to move forward with the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

The question is whether or not Trump used his power and authority as President for personal political gain; specifically – requesting Ukraine investigate possible Democratic meddling in the 2016 Presidential Elections as well as former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who had business dealings in that country. Trump is accused of considering the withholding of aid for Ukraine until its president agreed to move forward with the requested investigations. The accusation is based on a memo detailing a phone conversation from July between President Trump and the President of Ukraine. Democrats in the House say the request could be a violation of the Constitution and an impeachable offense.

During a conference call with area media on Wednesday,  Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) indicated that he will be voting against the measure because he believes there is a lack of evidence and substance to move forward.

“Obviously I’m opposed to impeachment. I’m not seeing the smoking evidence that warrants an impeachable level offense, so I’m opposed to this vote that is coming down the pipeline,” Reed said. “I guess the good news about this vote is that it will put members of Congress on the record as to whether or not they will support impeachment and that’s a good thing. Members of Congress should be held accountable for the actions of this Democratic majority and I think the best thing we’ll see out of Thursday’s vote is where members stand on the issue of impeachment.”

The purpose of Thursday’s vote is not whether or not to impeach the President. Rather, it is to lay out the process for how a formal, public inquiry will play out on the floor of the House before any actual vote on impeachment takes place. Democrats say the process will include providing all evidence and information to all members of congress and the public, as well as giving Republican lawmakers in the House an opportunity to discuss and comment on any evidence and testimony as it is presented.

But Congressman Reed said on Wednesday that he has already seen enough evidence to determine that there was no impeachable offense by the president and as a result, he will not support a vote on the inquiry process.

“I have seen the evidence upon which the Democrats have based their impeachment inquiry hearing on, and that is the evidence of the transcript of the call. They’ve all said that the basis of their impeachment inquiry to date has been this Ukraine call and the transcript is well known. It has been out there and subject to review. So we have seen the evidence that they’re using to bring impeachment charges against the president. I do view this vote coming up this week as an impeachment vote – do you approve impeachment or do you disapprove of impeachment,” Reed said.