[ad_1]
Mayor Eric Adams declined Tuesday to weigh in on disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s potential comeback bid after he resigned last summer under threat of impeachment.
During an unrelated press conference, Adams was tight-lipped when asked for his reaction to Cuomo’s recent re-emergence and speculation he might launch a run for office.
“He has to make his decision,” the mayor told reporters. “As I stated, I thought it was important for him to step down at the time, and I thought it was the right decision, and now he will make the determination on what he’s going to do with his life in the future.”
Adams’ reserved response comes after Cuomo — who in February dined with the mayor in Midtown, where he offered him advice and “creative ideas” on reviving the Big Apple’s economy — in recent weeks has made a political resurgence after months out of the public eye.
The 64-year-old former chief executive released two TV advertisements — one attacking state Attorney General Letitia James’ sexual harassment probe and another touting his record — and has made a pair of appearances at Big Apple churches.
In early March, Cuomo groused to congregants at a Brooklyn church about how “cancel culture” and “political sharks” drove him out of office.
Eleven days later, the scandal-scarred ex-pol spoke at a Bronx church at the invitation of a controversial former lawmaker and would not rule out a run to oust Gov. Kathy Hochul, his former running mate who took over following Cuomo’s resignation in August.
He told reporters during the second appearance he was “not going anywhere” and responded, “I am open to all options” when asked if he would run in a Democratic primary against Hochul.
During his two public appearances, Cuomo attempted to spin his decision to step down amid several scandals — including his documented sexual harassment of 11 women, misuse of government resources to write his $5 million pandemic memoir and misleading the public about COVID-related deaths in nursing homes — as him being a victim of “cancel culture.”
If Cuomo were to earn the Democratic Party’s November general election ballot spot, he’d have until April 7 to gather the required signatures. Sources previously told The Post that Cuomo is giving serious consideration to making a comeback bid later this year — possibly running as an independent, if not as a Democrat.
Meanwhile, sources told The Post that Cuomo last week lunched with influential labor union honcho Peter Ward, former president of the Hotel Trades Council at Fresco By Scotto restaurant. Notably, Ward’s old union has already endorsed Hochul.
Many measures have that shown few New Yorkers are clamoring for a Cuomo comeback.
A poll released last month showed a majority of voters believe he is a serial sexual harasser. Fifty-eight percent of New York voters believe Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women while serving as governor, while just 21 percent of respondents believe he was innocent, according to the Siena College survey.
And just 33 percent of New York voters viewed Cuomo favorably compared to 60 percent who gave him a thumbs down, according to a survey released in October.
In another poll, Hochul held a commanding lead over her disgraced predecessor and other contenders in a hypothetical four-way Democratic primary race. In the Marist survey, also released in October, Cuomo earned just 19 percent to Hochul’s 36 percent.
But Cuomo’s confidence was boosted by an Emerson College poll that showed him trailing Hochul by just four points in a hypothetical Democratic primary.
“The poll results I found gratifying, but I’ve never lived by the polls,” he told reporters last week at the Bronx church. “I think when people get the facts about what happened, because the facts were obvious, it was all political.”
[ad_2]