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With his resignation set to take effect at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 23, Cuomo issued his final address in office, addressing the accusations against him head-on.
At midnight Tuesday, Aug. 24, Kathy Hochul, who has served as lieutenant governor since 2015, will be sworn in as New York's first female governor.
“There will be another time to talk about truth and the ethics about the recent information involving me,” he said at the outset of his statement. “When government politicizes things and headlines are without fact, it doesn’t serve men, women, or society.
“A firecracker can start a stampede, but at one point everyone looks around and says ‘Why are we running?’ the truth is always revealed,” he said. “The Attorney General’s report was designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic, and it worked. There was a political and media stampede.”
Cuomo reiterated that “the truth will come out in time,” and that “there is real work to be done and it will require the government to function at the highest level."
“What is done now is more important than what we’ve done as a society in a generation,” he said. “Our actions will determine our future.”
In his final address as governor, Cuomo offered advice as to policies he should be put in place moving forward, including vaccinating teachers before the upcoming school year, masks in schools, and mandates for private businesses to require proof of vaccination for large gatherings.
“Please don’t forget what we learned together last year and what we accomplished,” he said. “We went from the highest rate to the lowest … Did what no one thought could be done … Why? Because when the rest of the nation put their head in the sand and denied science, we made the tough but necessary decision, and while our infection rate went down, other states have been going up.”
Cuomo also called on local police to enforce COVID-19 mandates for public safety before getting lyrical as he neared the end of his speech.
“Let us remember that political procrastination is COVID collaboration,” he said. “We know the choice is between the politically contentious or the medically infectious.”
In the closing of his farewell address, Cuomo said that he believes that “the best is yet to be” for New York, and he “believes (New Yorkers) will make it so.”
“We didn’t get everything done that we wanted to, and we didn’t always get it quite right,” he said. “But I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, that every day I worked my hardest, and I gave it all.”
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