NBC News anchor Chuck Todd said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) resigned so he could run for office or work within the Democratic Party in the future.
Todd said, “Part of the punishment if he was convicted in an impeachment trial that he would no longer be able to serve in office in the state of New York. I think Cuomo believes he can go and live another day.”
He continued, “This career was either permanently over or almost permanently over, and he chose the path of almost permanently over. Right? The resignation gives him —you know, we know the way our world works. It’s amazing. The people we’ve seen make political comebacks. You can’t ever rule it out. I think he realized he could become a pariah in the Democratic Party for sticking it out and fighting, or he can — not saying he will generate goodwill, but I promise you there are a whole lot of state assembly members that are relieved today. There are a whole lot of assembly Democrats that didn’t want to go through this process, didn’t want to have to go through this. There are a lot of congressional Democrats that are glad he did this.”
Todd added, “He eventually did something that over time will at least give him an opening to maybe, oh, not be a full pariah in the party in three years, four years, five years. I’m not saying this is about the next year or two, but think about what Andrew Cuomo’s done his whole life. He’s been basically a professional politician his whole life, either working on campaigns for his father, working in the Clinton administration, or running for office himself. This is all he’s known. What would he do without the ability to run for office? So, look, I expect in my lifetime, Andrew Cuomo to run for office again. What that office is, I don’t know, but that’s what this resignation tells me today. He wants to live to fight another day.”
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