Rep. Zeldin to Newsmax: Andrew Cuomo Should Stay Out of Office

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's ego could bring him to run again for public office, but he should stay out, as he's "quite fortunate he hasn't been prosecuted" for his misdeeds, Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is running in the state's GOP gubernatorial primary, said on Newsmax Tuesday.

"It's quite amazing that he's even free right now on this day to even claim that he is being vindicated, and that he can and should run for office again," the New York Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "I believe that Republicans and Democrats, conservatives, liberals, and everyone everywhere in between, believe that this is a really bad idea, that Andrew Cuomo shouldn't be returning to elected office. What should happen is that there should be a heck of a lot more accountability for his wrongdoing."

Cuomo stepped down last year after New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, issued a report based on claims from 11 women who said he'd sexually harassed them while in office. However, a criminal charge against him was dropped, and the last of five investigations did not yield any charges.

The former governor told Bloomberg for a report Monday that he feels that he has been "vindicated" and would not rule out a comeback bid.

But Cuomo had many more issues, including his "deadly nursing home order" in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cover-up, and the "$5.1 million book deal using his taxpayer-funded staff to write it," said Zeldin.

"There was also the COVID testing preferential treatment for family and friends," the congressman told Newsmax. "The list goes on."

Zeldin on Tuesday also discussed the growing list of states that are moving to drop mask requirements for their schools, which does not include New York.

"It should be gone already," said Zeldin. "All COVID mandates should end in my opinion, but especially for those kids. They've gone through so much these last two years."

In New York, there is a mask mandate for children as young as the age of 2, and Zeldin said he is concerned about young children and their development while being made to cover their faces.

"I think about the young kids going through earlier intervention, and maybe they're on the autism spectrum and they're learning how to speak their language," he said. "They need to be able to see the teacher's face, to be able to see classmates' faces. In many respects, I would say that this is child abuse. If we care about child welfare, it's time to give them that return to normalcy that they deserve."

There is also confusion over the types of masks, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending N-95 masks, not cloth masks, to be worn because of the higher transmissibility of the omicron coronavirus variant, said Zeldin.

"Our kids shouldn't have to be forced to spend their entire day wearing these masks," he added. "We all see the hypocritical blue state control freaks who are caught constantly not wearing masks, violating their own orders.

"Unfortunately, they are taking a long time to start acknowledging aspects of the science and reality that we've been talking about for a while …. we need leadership, and these blue state control freaks, about power and control, are subjecting their own constituents to conditions that are making people just more likely to want to flee."

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