These politicians should be called out on the spot in front of who ever is around them, I believe if they get called out the 1st time it could work as as a deterrent but I’m no expert on the subject..
jesus greets me looks just like me ....
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,780
New York’s vaccine czar called county officials to gauge their loyalty to Cuomo amid sexual harassment investigation
New
York’s “vaccine czar” — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo —
phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their
loyalty to the embattled governoramid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, according to multiple officials.
One
Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry
Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on
Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public
integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office, the official told
The Washington Post. The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply
could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response
to hisquestions about support of the governor.
“At best, it was inappropriate,” said the executive, who spokeon
the condition of anonymity out of fear that the Cuomo administration
would retaliate against the county’s residents. “At worst, it was
clearly over the ethical line.”
Schwartz,
who is working in a volunteer capacity to run New York’s vaccine
distribution, acknowledged making the calls in response to an inquiry by
The Post, but said he did so as a 30-year friend of Cuomo and did not
discuss vaccines in the conversations.
“I did nothing wrong,” Schwartz said. “I have always conducted myself in a manner commensurate to a high ethical standard.”
Schwartz
is one of Cuomo’s longtime lieutenants, serving as secretary to the
governor — the most influential aide to the New York governor — from
2011until 2015, and then advising him off and on since, earning
the reputation as Cuomo’s enforcer. Schwartz returned last spring to be
the administration’s point person on the coronavirus pandemic — moving into the governor’s mansion at one point — and has managed much of the state’s response.
His
calls to county officials could fuel questions about an intermingling
of politics with the state’s public health operation. The conversations
came in advance of a March 8 announcement by
the governor’s office that the state plans to open 10 new mass
vaccination sites around New York — distribution hubs that have been
keenly sought by local officials.
Arthur
Caplan, director of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of
Medicine, said political outreach by the person helming the state’s
vaccine response could lead to officials fearing that vaccine decisions
could be based on favoritism.
“People
do not see calls coming from the governor’s mansion as somebody wearing
one hat and then putting on another hat,” he said. “If you are in
control of a vital supply of a life-saving resource like vaccines, you
are carrying an enormous amount of implicit clout when you ask for
political allegiance. And you shouldn’t be doing that anyway. The public
health goal to maximize the best use of vaccines has nothing to do with
any public declaration of political fealty. And it shouldn’t even be
implied or hinted at.”
In
several statements he emailed to The Post on Saturday, Schwartz said
the calls he made to assess political support for Cuomo were distinct
from the role he plays in the vaccine distribution effort.
“I
did have conversations with a number of County Executives from across
the State to ascertain if they were maintaining their public position
that there is an ongoing investigation by the State Attorney General and
that we should wait for the findings of that investigation before
drawing any conclusions,” he wrote.
Schwartz
described the calls as “cordial, respectful and friendly,” adding:
“Nobody indicated that they were uncomfortable or that they did not want
to talk to me.”
He
added that decisions about where to locate mass vaccination sites are
not made by one individual but are determined by members of the
governor’s vaccine task force and outside consultants, “based on merit,
data and facts and not politics.”
Schwartz
declined to answer if he had taken the ethics oath required for New
York state public officers. The law states that no officer should engage
in conduct that could give an impression that any person could “unduly
enjoy his or her favor in the performance of his or her official
duties.”
Beth
Garvey, acting counsel to the governor, said in a statement that the
ethics oath is not required of volunteers under an executive order
issued by Cuomo to facilitate the participation of volunteers in the
state’s coronavirus response. “Any assertion or implication that this
was a failing on the part of Larry Schwartz is simply false,” she said.
In
interviews with The Post, several public officials who received the
calls from Schwartz spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the
conversations, saying they fear swift retribution from Cuomo if they
speak out against him.
The
officials said Schwartz appeared to be taking stock of where they stood
on Cuomo and whether they would continue to support him, and said he
emphasized the need to let the state investigation play out.
One
official who received a call did not view it as an explicit threat and
was not disturbed by it, but added: “Looking back on it, Larry probably
wasn’t the best person to make a call like that.” A second official from
a separate county said: “I didn’t feel that there was correlation
between the answer I was going to give and my vaccine supply. But I
could see how maybe someone else maybe got that impression.”
They described the outreach aspolitics
as usual in the Cuomo administration, which has long earned a
reputation for leaning on allies and threatening opponents. The
spotlight on the governor’s style has intensified in recent weeks, as
Cuomo’s political power has become mired in dual scandals: one related
to multiple accusations of sexual harassment and unwelcome touching, and
the other centered on his actions related to nursing-home deaths.
Cuomo faces criticism as new allegations emerge
Lawmakers
and members of the media reacted to the allegations against New York
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) on March 7. (Allie Caren/The Washington Post)
On Friday, a majority of the New York congressional delegation — including the state’s two U.S. senators — called for Cuomo to step down,
issuing a barrage of public statements, many just minutes apart from
one another. One official involved in the discussions said the timing
was planned to absolve any one lawmaker from receiving Cuomo’s wrath.
“He
can’t kill us all at the same time,” said the official, a senior aide
to one of the lawmakers who called for Cuomo to resign, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to describe the internal strategy.
The
governor has been accused of workplace harassment, improper touching or
both by five women, including four who worked for him. An allegation by
a sixth woman — also an employee — was referred by the governor’s
office to local police for investigation Wednesday. Many others, male
and female, have described a hostile and abusive workplace in which
young women were frequently treated differently.
Cuomo
has denied accusations of unwanted touching and largely been defiant in
the wake of growing calls for his resignation. He has dismissed some of
the claims as part of a “cancel culture” that he derided as “dangerous”
and “reckless,” urging critics to wait for the conclusion of the state
attorney general’s probe of the harassment allegations. He said earlier
this month that he never intended to cause any pain or make anyone feel
uncomfortable.
The
controversies have been fueled in part by a growing willingness — even
among party allies — to break a code of silence that was long expected
in the notoriously cutthroat and fealty-driven world of New York
politics.
Ron
Kim, a New York state assemblyman, went public in February with a call
from Cuomo that he said was explicitly threatening in nature over his
criticism of the nursing-home deaths scandal. A top Cuomo adviser has
disputed that Cuomo threatened to “destroy” Kim, as Kim has said.
One
of Cuomo’s accusers, former staffer Lindsey Boylan, has alleged that
Cuomo’s aides leaked her personnel file to reporters, and on Friday, the
Wall Street Journal reported on attempts by the governor’s aides to call former employees attempting to glean information about Boylan.
New York City public advocate Jumaane Williamssaid
Cuomo’s tactics of using fear to govern largely worked because
“retribution was very harsh if you crossed him. People were very
concerned.”
But
now, he said, “you’re seeing some of the fear starting to crumble. So
when you have that stripped away, you don’t have a lot to back you up.”
A spokesman for Cuomo did not respond to a request for comment on the governor’s reputation for exacting retribution.
Amid
the burgeoning crises, Schwartz has remained his staunch ally. After
several years working in the private sector, he returned to Cuomo’s side
in the early days of the coronavirus pandemiclast year, volunteering to manage medical equipment and supplies directed to hospitals and health-care systems.
Schwartz
told The Post that he assisted with ensuring bed capacity for hospitals
and helped launch a contact-tracing program. He said he is volunteering
in his role as head of the vaccine rollout.
In his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic,”
Cuomo wrote that when he had asked Schwartz to help him manage the
public health crisis, “I knew that if I asked, he wouldn’t say no; he
was that good a friend. I’d known him for thirty years.”
Cuomo
said he even invited Schwartz to move into the governor’s mansion for a
period of time to live with him, his dog, Captain, and his three
daughters, writing, “Now Larry was added to the pack.” He said Schwartz
put in long hours, often not returning to the mansion until midnight or 1
a.m.
Across the state, Schwartz is viewed as someone with singular influence.
New
York state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who represents the
Astoria neighborhood in Queens, said he was in a meeting with Schwartz
and the state health commissioner earlier this year in which he said
Schwartz often answered questions before the commissioner. Mamdani had
been pressing for incarcerated individuals to receive access to vaccine
doses, and he said that during the meeting, it became clear to him that
Schwartz had large sway over decisions about vaccine distribution.
“He
sets policy in regards to rollout, in regards to eligibility and has
the real ability to dictate the supply to different parts of the state,”
Mamdani said.
Schwartz told The Post that he holds weekly calls with county executives and county health officials.
But
he said that when he called county officials to assess their support
for Cuomo, “they were hearing from me as someone who has [known] the
Governor for 30 years and someone who has been involved in NYS
Government and Politics for about the same time.”
He
said he made the calls at night, although he said some officials may
have returned the calls the following morning. “I find time to oversee
the vaccine program and well as take on other responsibilities,” he
wrote in an email. “I am able to multi task.”
“Everyone
took my call or called me back,” he added. “NOBODY indicated they were
uncomfortable discussing with me or thought it was inappropriate.”
When asked whether Cuomo directed him to reach out to county officials, he responded: “It was my decision to make the calls.”
The
Democratic county executive who filed notice of an ethics complaint
said that Schwartz made no explicit threat to withhold vaccines but it
felt as if there was an implication of what was at stake, given
Schwartz’s influence over the vaccine distribution channels and the fact
that he called or emailed only to discuss vaccine allotment.
“I’m
not calling about vaccines,” Schwartz told the executive, then stressed
that it was crucial to let the investigation by the attorney general
play out, according to the executive.
If
the executive’s position on Cuomo changed, Schwartz said, he would
appreciate a head’s up, according to notes the executive took at the
time.
“There
was a lot going through my mind,” the executive recounted. “This is
putting me in an impossible position where I potentially have to choose
between like a weird political loyalty to a governor who controls a lot
of things, not just vaccine, and is known to be vindictive, and on the
other side, doses of lifesaving vaccine every week for my residents who
are literally desperate for them.”
A
spokesman for the state attorney general’s office did not respond to a
request for comment about the notice of an ethics complaint the
executive filed.
In
describing the calls to The Post, Schwartz said, “there was no pressure
and I never asked anyone to support the Governor. All I asked them was
if their public position of calling for an independent investigation by
the Attorney General and waiting for the outcome of her report had
changed.”
He said vaccines are distributed in the state based on the number of eligible residents and a county’s administration rate.
“It’s
not based on favoritism, politics or anything else,” he wrote. He also
said he took offense at the fact that his “accuser” was speaking on the
condition of anonymity.
Several
Republican county executives reached by The Post said they had not
received such calls from Schwartz. Longtime Cuomo critic, Rensselaer
County Executive Steve McLaughlin, quipped, “He didn’t call me because
he knew I would never say something nice about” Cuomo.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
look, there are credible accusations.....more often than not....HOWEVER, i do take umbrage with "believe all women" as the standard. if that standard were to be held up and what my ex tried to do, I'd be in prison for a crime not committed. like, 100% fiction.
just a spurned psycho bitch.
there's no black and white answer unfortunately. there will be women not believed who should be. there will be men not believed who should be. but without a Minority Report for sexual assault, lies will be told and mistakes will be made.
I think the problem is more “believe it automatically if I don’t like the person”. And then become a deep detective when it’s someone you like or you’re politically in line with. That’s the big issue imo. Over 50% of NYers are ok with Cuomo not resigning and are on his side. I’d like to see those numbers if he wasn’t a democratic. This is all it comes down unfortunately.
I think the problem is more “believe it automatically if I don’t like the person”. And then become a deep detective when it’s someone you like or you’re politically in line with. That’s the big issue imo. Over 50% of NYers are ok with Cuomo not resigning and are on his side. I’d like to see those numbers if he wasn’t a democratic. This is all it comes down unfortunately.
I'm sure in many cases it comes down to partisanship; in my case it's how the person appears. I would have believed accusations against trump even when he was a democrat and/or when I was a fan of the apprentice.
Clinton seems likable, so, while it's likely he's a creep, his public persona doesn't lend itself as much to that as trump does.
Cuomo seems like an egomaniac, so for me it's likely he behaves that way.
if it were, say, Rand Paul, I'd also be surprised, because, even though his politics are the opposite of mine, I can't see that type of thing from a guy like that.
Comments
New York’s vaccine czar called county officials to gauge their loyalty to Cuomo amid sexual harassment investigation
New York’s “vaccine czar” — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, according to multiple officials.
One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office, the official told The Washington Post. The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response to his questions about support of the governor.
“At best, it was inappropriate,” said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear that the Cuomo administration would retaliate against the county’s residents. “At worst, it was clearly over the ethical line.”
Schwartz, who is working in a volunteer capacity to run New York’s vaccine distribution, acknowledged making the calls in response to an inquiry by The Post, but said he did so as a 30-year friend of Cuomo and did not discuss vaccines in the conversations.
“I did nothing wrong,” Schwartz said. “I have always conducted myself in a manner commensurate to a high ethical standard.”
Schwartz is one of Cuomo’s longtime lieutenants, serving as secretary to the governor — the most influential aide to the New York governor — from 2011 until 2015, and then advising him off and on since, earning the reputation as Cuomo’s enforcer. Schwartz returned last spring to be the administration’s point person on the coronavirus pandemic — moving into the governor’s mansion at one point — and has managed much of the state’s response.
His calls to county officials could fuel questions about an intermingling of politics with the state’s public health operation. The conversations came in advance of a March 8 announcement by the governor’s office that the state plans to open 10 new mass vaccination sites around New York — distribution hubs that have been keenly sought by local officials.
Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said political outreach by the person helming the state’s vaccine response could lead to officials fearing that vaccine decisions could be based on favoritism.
“People do not see calls coming from the governor’s mansion as somebody wearing one hat and then putting on another hat,” he said. “If you are in control of a vital supply of a life-saving resource like vaccines, you are carrying an enormous amount of implicit clout when you ask for political allegiance. And you shouldn’t be doing that anyway. The public health goal to maximize the best use of vaccines has nothing to do with any public declaration of political fealty. And it shouldn’t even be implied or hinted at.”
Cuomo’s behavior created ‘hostile, toxic’ workplace culture for decades, former aides say
In several statements he emailed to The Post on Saturday, Schwartz said the calls he made to assess political support for Cuomo were distinct from the role he plays in the vaccine distribution effort.
“I did have conversations with a number of County Executives from across the State to ascertain if they were maintaining their public position that there is an ongoing investigation by the State Attorney General and that we should wait for the findings of that investigation before drawing any conclusions,” he wrote.
Schwartz described the calls as “cordial, respectful and friendly,” adding: “Nobody indicated that they were uncomfortable or that they did not want to talk to me.”
He added that decisions about where to locate mass vaccination sites are not made by one individual but are determined by members of the governor’s vaccine task force and outside consultants, “based on merit, data and facts and not politics.”
Schwartz declined to answer if he had taken the ethics oath required for New York state public officers. The law states that no officer should engage in conduct that could give an impression that any person could “unduly enjoy his or her favor in the performance of his or her official duties.”
Beth Garvey, acting counsel to the governor, said in a statement that the ethics oath is not required of volunteers under an executive order issued by Cuomo to facilitate the participation of volunteers in the state’s coronavirus response. “Any assertion or implication that this was a failing on the part of Larry Schwartz is simply false,” she said.
In interviews with The Post, several public officials who received the calls from Schwartz spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the conversations, saying they fear swift retribution from Cuomo if they speak out against him.
The officials said Schwartz appeared to be taking stock of where they stood on Cuomo and whether they would continue to support him, and said he emphasized the need to let the state investigation play out.
One official who received a call did not view it as an explicit threat and was not disturbed by it, but added: “Looking back on it, Larry probably wasn’t the best person to make a call like that.” A second official from a separate county said: “I didn’t feel that there was correlation between the answer I was going to give and my vaccine supply. But I could see how maybe someone else maybe got that impression.”
They described the outreach as politics as usual in the Cuomo administration, which has long earned a reputation for leaning on allies and threatening opponents. The spotlight on the governor’s style has intensified in recent weeks, as Cuomo’s political power has become mired in dual scandals: one related to multiple accusations of sexual harassment and unwelcome touching, and the other centered on his actions related to nursing-home deaths.
On Friday, a majority of the New York congressional delegation — including the state’s two U.S. senators — called for Cuomo to step down, issuing a barrage of public statements, many just minutes apart from one another. One official involved in the discussions said the timing was planned to absolve any one lawmaker from receiving Cuomo’s wrath.
“He can’t kill us all at the same time,” said the official, a senior aide to one of the lawmakers who called for Cuomo to resign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal strategy.
Cuomo refuses to resign amid Democratic uproar over sexual harassment accusations
The governor has been accused of workplace harassment, improper touching or both by five women, including four who worked for him. An allegation by a sixth woman — also an employee — was referred by the governor’s office to local police for investigation Wednesday. Many others, male and female, have described a hostile and abusive workplace in which young women were frequently treated differently.
Cuomo has denied accusations of unwanted touching and largely been defiant in the wake of growing calls for his resignation. He has dismissed some of the claims as part of a “cancel culture” that he derided as “dangerous” and “reckless,” urging critics to wait for the conclusion of the state attorney general’s probe of the harassment allegations. He said earlier this month that he never intended to cause any pain or make anyone feel uncomfortable.
The controversies have been fueled in part by a growing willingness — even among party allies — to break a code of silence that was long expected in the notoriously cutthroat and fealty-driven world of New York politics.
Ron Kim, a New York state assemblyman, went public in February with a call from Cuomo that he said was explicitly threatening in nature over his criticism of the nursing-home deaths scandal. A top Cuomo adviser has disputed that Cuomo threatened to “destroy” Kim, as Kim has said.
One of Cuomo’s accusers, former staffer Lindsey Boylan, has alleged that Cuomo’s aides leaked her personnel file to reporters, and on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported on attempts by the governor’s aides to call former employees attempting to glean information about Boylan.
New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams said Cuomo’s tactics of using fear to govern largely worked because “retribution was very harsh if you crossed him. People were very concerned.”
But now, he said, “you’re seeing some of the fear starting to crumble. So when you have that stripped away, you don’t have a lot to back you up.”
A spokesman for Cuomo did not respond to a request for comment on the governor’s reputation for exacting retribution.
Amid the burgeoning crises, Schwartz has remained his staunch ally. After several years working in the private sector, he returned to Cuomo’s side in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic last year, volunteering to manage medical equipment and supplies directed to hospitals and health-care systems.
Schwartz told The Post that he assisted with ensuring bed capacity for hospitals and helped launch a contact-tracing program. He said he is volunteering in his role as head of the vaccine rollout.
In his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic,” Cuomo wrote that when he had asked Schwartz to help him manage the public health crisis, “I knew that if I asked, he wouldn’t say no; he was that good a friend. I’d known him for thirty years.”
Cuomo said he even invited Schwartz to move into the governor’s mansion for a period of time to live with him, his dog, Captain, and his three daughters, writing, “Now Larry was added to the pack.” He said Schwartz put in long hours, often not returning to the mansion until midnight or 1 a.m.
Across the state, Schwartz is viewed as someone with singular influence.
New York state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who represents the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, said he was in a meeting with Schwartz and the state health commissioner earlier this year in which he said Schwartz often answered questions before the commissioner. Mamdani had been pressing for incarcerated individuals to receive access to vaccine doses, and he said that during the meeting, it became clear to him that Schwartz had large sway over decisions about vaccine distribution.
“He sets policy in regards to rollout, in regards to eligibility and has the real ability to dictate the supply to different parts of the state,” Mamdani said.
Schwartz told The Post that he holds weekly calls with county executives and county health officials.
But he said that when he called county officials to assess their support for Cuomo, “they were hearing from me as someone who has [known] the Governor for 30 years and someone who has been involved in NYS Government and Politics for about the same time.”
He said he made the calls at night, although he said some officials may have returned the calls the following morning. “I find time to oversee the vaccine program and well as take on other responsibilities,” he wrote in an email. “I am able to multi task.”
“Everyone took my call or called me back,” he added. “NOBODY indicated they were uncomfortable discussing with me or thought it was inappropriate.”
When asked whether Cuomo directed him to reach out to county officials, he responded: “It was my decision to make the calls.”
The Democratic county executive who filed notice of an ethics complaint said that Schwartz made no explicit threat to withhold vaccines but it felt as if there was an implication of what was at stake, given Schwartz’s influence over the vaccine distribution channels and the fact that he called or emailed only to discuss vaccine allotment.
“I’m not calling about vaccines,” Schwartz told the executive, then stressed that it was crucial to let the investigation by the attorney general play out, according to the executive.
If the executive’s position on Cuomo changed, Schwartz said, he would appreciate a head’s up, according to notes the executive took at the time.
“There was a lot going through my mind,” the executive recounted. “This is putting me in an impossible position where I potentially have to choose between like a weird political loyalty to a governor who controls a lot of things, not just vaccine, and is known to be vindictive, and on the other side, doses of lifesaving vaccine every week for my residents who are literally desperate for them.”
A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the notice of an ethics complaint the executive filed.
In describing the calls to The Post, Schwartz said, “there was no pressure and I never asked anyone to support the Governor. All I asked them was if their public position of calling for an independent investigation by the Attorney General and waiting for the outcome of her report had changed.”
He said vaccines are distributed in the state based on the number of eligible residents and a county’s administration rate.
“It’s not based on favoritism, politics or anything else,” he wrote. He also said he took offense at the fact that his “accuser” was speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Several Republican county executives reached by The Post said they had not received such calls from Schwartz. Longtime Cuomo critic, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, quipped, “He didn’t call me because he knew I would never say something nice about” Cuomo.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
just a spurned psycho bitch.
there's no black and white answer unfortunately. there will be women not believed who should be. there will be men not believed who should be. but without a Minority Report for sexual assault, lies will be told and mistakes will be made.
that being said, cuomo is likely finished.
www.headstonesband.com
it comes down unfortunately.
Clinton seems likable, so, while it's likely he's a creep, his public persona doesn't lend itself as much to that as trump does.
Cuomo seems like an egomaniac, so for me it's likely he behaves that way.
if it were, say, Rand Paul, I'd also be surprised, because, even though his politics are the opposite of mine, I can't see that type of thing from a guy like that.
www.headstonesband.com