[ad_1]
Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday for the first time that his left-wing political influence directed at the Alexandria-based Ocasio-Cortez Republic had played a major role in the cancellation of the agreement with Amazon for the opening of a headquartered in Queens.
Cuomo was asked in a radio interview whether Ocasio-Ortez's astonishing surprise over representative Joe Crowley in last year's Democratic primary had scared local politicians away from supporters to opponents project because they feared a major challenge from the progressives.
"Yes," replied Cuomo.
It was only last week that Cuomo downplayed the role of Ocasio-Cortez, noting that she was not directly involved.
But he changed his tone on Tuesday.
"The state said we would only apply if local politicians and the community supported it. senator [Mike] Gianaris signed the letter of support. [City Councilman Jimmy] Van Bramer signed the letter of support. We win, "said Cuomo on WNYC radio.
Cuomo said there was a "political change" after Ocasio-Cortez's victory.
"Then they oppose the very application that they have taken care of. They signed the application. We win. The same people who sign it say: "Oops, politics has changed, I have changed my mind," he said.
Cuomo also escalated his quarrel with fellow Democrats who control the state Senate for giving Gianaris the veto over the project, which he described as "irresponsible."
"I think they should have stayed, but I also think you had politicians playing their own local politics and the state Senate as the body representing the whole of the state and that you should not have been content with the political interests of a local politician, "said the governor. I said.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has nominated Gianaris for the obscure Public Authority Control Board, where every voting member would have had a veto over the Amazon deal.
Gianaris retorted that Cuomo had negotiated a "bad deal".
"A true leader would take responsibility for his mistakes and learn from them instead of pointing out all the others. The fact is that it's an agreement that the governor has negotiated in secret, that he has hidden from everyone, and then if he has reached a bad deal, he is expected by everyone accept without asking questions. That's not how it works, "said Gianaris.
Stewart-Cousins spokesman Mike Murphy also criticized Cuomo for refusing to "take any responsibility for this failure".
"He still refuses to understand that the legislature is a separate entity and has the right to ask questions. . . "It's a democracy, not a dictatorship," he said.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate have proposed an amendment to restructure the PACB in order to eliminate the veto right granted to a single member by allowing a majority vote to approve a project.
The Democrats defeated the amendment at a procedural vote.
[ad_2]
Source link