Democrat Andrew Cuomo, currently a New York City mayoral candidate, is attempting to elevate his local campaign to a national platform, despite a history of scandals and ongoing investigations.
The former New York Governor announced in a POLITICO interview that his campaign would not only address local concerns but also champion a nationwide fight against proposed Medicaid cuts by the Trump administration.
Cuomo vehemently criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to reduce Medicaid funding, asserting that such a move could jeopardize Republican control of the House of Representatives.
“He’s cutting Medicaid. Medicaid is not a blue-city, blue-state situation,” Cuomo told POLITICO. “That is in every state. That’s a lot of red congressional districts. And he could lose the House on cutting Medicaid if you organized it and got it moving.” RELATED: “No Cuts, Just Commonsense” House Speaker Johnson Fires Back At Medicaid Alarm Bells
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed by the House, is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to slash approximately $600 billion from Medicaid. According to Indiana Republican Representative Erin Houchin, the bill would restrict benefits to undocumented immigrants, individuals with multiple enrollments, those not working, and those already receiving benefits elsewhere.
Cuomo stated his intention to become a “spokesperson, advocate, organizer” for Medicaid, indicating he “would spend eight years in Washington — go to that U.S. Conference of Mayors, go to the National Governors Association.”
However, Cuomo’s national ambitions are shadowed by significant controversies. He is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly perjuring himself before Congress regarding his administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer referred Cuomo for a criminal investigation to the DOJ in late April.
READ: DOJ Investigating Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo For Alleged Lies To Congress On COVID
White House spokesman Kush Desai sharply rebuked Cuomo’s stance, telling the DCNF, “The last time Andrew Cuomo had a say in health care, thousands of New York’s most vulnerable perished in nursing homes due to Cuomo’s blatant incompetence and disregard for science. Cuomo is not the white knight that Democrats are looking for to stop Republicans’ commonsense effort to protect Medicaid by taking illegal immigrants off the program.”
During his governorship, Cuomo faced widespread criticism for allegedly manipulating COVID-19 data, including underreporting nursing home fatalities, to create a false impression of New York’s pandemic management. While official figures suggested a low nursing home death rate, unedited data indicated one of the highest fatality rates in the state for both nursing homes and hospitals.
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Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 following a report by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which concluded he had sexually harassed multiple women and then silenced them. At the time of his resignation, 85 state assembly members supported impeachment proceedings.
Domestically, Cuomo’s mayoral campaign has also encountered significant turbulence. It was recently fined $675,000 by the New York City Campaign Finance Board for improper collusion with a super PAC. In May, his campaign attorney issued a cease-and-desist letter to a union that distributed a mailer listing reasons not to vote for him.
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