That’s what you get for not showing up.
Gov. Cuomo dominated Thursday’s gubernatorial debate in absentia as rivals Zephyr Teachout, a Democrat, and Rob Astorino, a Republican, spent about 40 minutes bashing him on WNYC radio.
The two candidates tag-teamed him in a spirited smack down from the right and left, branding Cuomo a “corrupt” politician for meddling with and shutting his Moreland Commission to Combat Public Corruption and engaging in pay-to-play politics.
“The Moreland Commission scandal is exactly what’s wrong with this state. You have a governor now being investigated for criminal activity,” said Astorino.
“He’s under investigation for potential witness tampering, obstruction of justice. Pure power is what he is about.”
Astorino said Cuomo — a Democrat heavily favored to win a second term — is refusing to debate in part “because his criminal defense attorneys are advising him not speak.”
And when host Brian Lehrer asked if Cuomo was “corrupt,” they pounced.
“Yes, absolutely,” Astorino replied without hesitation.
“This whole administration is built on a fraud. He has spent over $ 200 million in tax money to set up crony capitalism…,” Astorino said, referring to Start-UP NY business program.
He said Cuomo has raised massive amount campaign funds to practice “dirty politics” to get re-elected and claimed the governor “stands for nothing.”
Teachout also lit into Cuomo on the show, which has a left-leaning audience — the type of voters that form her base of support.
“Unfortunately his behavior continually is serving his own interests ahead of the interests of the public,” Teachout said of Cuomo.
“Regardless of your ideology,” Teachout said, “[that] suggests that at heart he is what we typically call corrupt.”
“Andrew Cuomo when he both shut the Moreland Commission down and then may or may not have — we still don’t know — directed his top aide to interfere with [the panel] showed a real lack of respect for the basic idea of law. That all laws apply to everybody equally,” she said. “Because he shut it down when it got close to his own campaign donors and went to his own business associates…They should not be free from law itself…It violates the ethical obligations of the people of this state.”
Cuomo has maintained he acted appropriately in his dealings with the Moreland Commission. But he has not commented in recent weeks on the controversy, pending a probe of his office’s interactions with it by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Both candidates also slammed Cuomo for being a no-show.
“Andrew Cuomo has an obligation to the public — not just himself,” Teachout said.
Astorino called Cuomo’s refusal to engage “despicable.”
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