Republican Congress Members Accuse Cuomo of ‘Outright Lying’
Calling New York Republicans who voted for the tax bill in Congress “treasonous,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that he had spoken with “all of them” and that “they all had the same line which was, ‘Well you know my political leaders are forcing me to vote for it.’”
The problem? Three of the four New York Republicans who voted for the measure said they had not spoken to Mr. Cuomo.
And the one who had, Representative Tom Reed of Corning, said the governor was “outright lying” about their conversation.
“I never believed I’d be living in a state with a governor that was an outright liar,” Mr. Reed said in an interview on Thursday evening. “I am just appalled that he would have the character level of just outright lying. I’m not even going to say mischaracterizing it. It’s just an outright lie by a liar in the governor’s mansion. To me, that is very troublesome. For a man who is trying to run for president of the United States to stoop to that moral character is troublesome, to say the least.”
Representative Chris Collins, a Republican from western New York, said that he has never spoken with Mr. Cuomo. “Not only is he a bold-faced liar, but he also is fabricating quotations,” Mr. Collins said.
Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, tried to clarify the governor’s remarks. “The governor’s point was the Republican congressmen he spoke to said they were under pressure from their political leadership to vote yes,” Mr. Azzopardi said.
Mr. Reed, the only New York Republican congressman to acknowledge speaking with the governor, adamantly denied that he said any such thing.
There is no love lost between the governor and the four Republicans; earlier this year, Mr. Cuomo said he would do whatever he could to help unseat them in next year’s midterm elections.
In another sign of the deep mistrust between the Democratic governor and the Republican delegation, Mr. Reed said he made sure to have a witness to the call. “I’m not foolish enough to speak to the governor without having a staffer in the room,” he said, because he had “heard numerous stories about how the governor has manipulated and bullied people.”
Mr. Reed said that in their call, Mr. Cuomo expressed concern that ending state and local tax deductibility could drive even a small number of the highest earners from the state, blowing a hole in the budget. He added that it had been several years since the last time the two spoke.
Mr. Azzopardi, the Cuomo spokesman, responded to the comments from the lawmakers by saying, “Reed, Collins and the rest of the New York Congress members who voted against their own constituents can try to deflect from this irresponsible vote, but it’s the governor who stood up for New York taxpayers and always will.”
Representative Claudia Tenney, the third Republican who voted for the bill, said she had not spoken with the governor for several years.
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