Two weeks after he officially resigned from office in disgrace, and three weeks after New York state Attorney General Tish James released a blockbuster report confirming that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) had sexually harassed 11 women and used his office to retaliate against at least one of them, Cuomo and his handlers are having to spend his last day in office fending off fresh reports that he’s leaving behind yet another victim on his way out the door.
On Sunday, the Times Union reported that Cuomo had left his dog Captain, who he adopted in 2018, at the Executive Mansion and was looking for someone to take him off his hands:
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been staying with one of his sisters in Westchester County in the final days of his third term, recently has asked staff members at the Executive Mansion if anyone would like to keep his dog, Captain, who has remained at the state-owned residence after the governor moved out last week.
Two State Police sources told the Times Union on Saturday that the governor had recently asked mansion staff members if anyone would be interested in caring for the dog. Captain — a high-strung mix of shepherd, Siberian and malamute — has nipped a few people since Cuomo adopted him in 2018, the sources said, and a mansion staffer recently took the dog home for a few days but decided he was too much.
Here’s a photo of Andrew Cuomo and “First Dog” Captain in what were obviously much happier times:
Happy #NationalDogDay to First Dog Captain! pic.twitter.com/d5Ndia2LMx
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 26, 2020
For what it’s worth, Cuomo’s spokespeople are denying he’s trying to get rid of Captain, saying that Cuomo will be headed off on vacation after his term ends at 11:59 p.m. tonight and needed someone to take care of Captain while he was away:
“Captain is part of the governor’s family and for your nameless ill-informed source to imply they’ve been trying to give him away is untrue,” [Cuomo spox/adviser Rich] Azzopardi said in a statement Saturday.
“Someone offered to watch him for a few days while the transition was ongoing but for that to be weaponized and morph from a game of telephone into the pages of your paper is absurd — now excuse us we’re preparing for a major storm,” he said, referring to Tropical Storm Henri.
The Times Union, however, says their State Police sources were insistent that Cuomo was actually trying to offload the dog and that he didn’t want him anymore. Not only that, but we’ve heard a lot of denials from Cuomo’s camp over the last year that turned out to be hogwash, so I wouldn’t be quick to believe Azzopardi on this one.
Nick Reisman, a Spectrum News NY state politics reporter, says this story is more about the State Police’s and Cuomo’s highly adversarial working relationship more so than Captain:
The story isn’t the dog (although I get people are concerned), it’s the State Police leaking embarrassing stuff about Cuomo on the way out.
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) August 23, 2021
And just to make clear this is not at all a swipe at the TU, which has done some really good work on the deteriorated Cuomo-State Police relationship, including this from Sunday https://t.co/BvEAkXnA2l
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) August 23, 2021
If you’ll recall, one of the women James said Cuomo sexually harassed was a female state trooper:
NEW: Cuomo harassing a female state trooper pic.twitter.com/YtvWB5ixjV
— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) August 3, 2021
All of that said, there may be some good news on the horizon after all for Captain as New York state assembly member Colin Schmitt (R) said this morning that he and his wife Nikki would be interested in opening their home to him:
…We are strong supporters of pet adoption – Quincy the Assembly dog himself being a rescue. If this is the case, we would happily open our home to Captain for his new life or work to place him in a caring and loving forever home in the Hudson Valley.”
— Colin Schmitt (@colinschmitt) August 23, 2021
The FBI investigation into Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic – specifically as it relates to the thousands of nursing home deaths that happened on his watch – is still ongoing.
Our best wishes go out to Captain. As for Gov. Cuomo, well, all we have to say to him is “good riddance.”
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