Samantha Bee blasted Governor Andrew Cuomo during her show Wednesday night, calling him “the biggest dirtbag New Yorkers have elected since pretty much every previous dirtbag we elected.”
“Guess we have a type,” the “Full Frontal” host cracked, before going on to discuss the allegations of sexual misconduct against the politician that recently forced him to issue a lengthy public apology.
“Back in 2020, we were so desperate for a leader who wouldn’t tell us to go bleach ourselves, we turned Governor Andrew Cuomo into a hero,” Bee said, before showing old video clips of people praising the governor for keeping New York safe at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those clips — including one where Ellen DeGeneres dubs herself a “Cuomosexual” — stand in stark contrast to the governor’s recent controversies, including his nursing home scandal and the aforementioned sexual harassment claims.
Bee reminded viewers that despite what we might have thought a year ago, “Andrew Cuomo is not a hero. He is an elected official hired by us to do his job. And if we want to demand the best job from our leaders, regardless of whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, we can’t treat them like our food journals.”
Bee’s takedown included criticisms of Cuomo’s mismanagement of the subway system, his attempts to cut Medicaid and his failure to raise taxes on the rich. She also threw shade at Cuomo for using his rising approval ratings to raise his profile during the pandemic with daily press briefings.
And when she noted that Attorney General Letitia James was planning to oversee an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations, Bee praised her for the way we all should be treating politicians: with scrutiny.
“Politicians aren’t infallible. If we treat them like they are, we’ll be disappointed. We need all of our officials to work for us and part of that means holding that accountable,” Bee said. “Just because Governor Cuomo steps into a leadership void during the pandemic doesn’t mean he gets a pass on his consistently s—-y behavior.”
Watch the clips from last night’s “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” below.