The stark change in Andrew Cuomo's image after his downfall is striking

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Andrew Cuomo making a speech while wearing a purple tie and gray suit

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Back in 2021, a number of voices were calling for Andrew Cuomo’s resignation in wake of the sexual harassment investigation against him, as well as the nursing home scandal. However, 2025 has marked quite the switcheroo and while some might argue that his criminal case being dropped means he’s worthy of a second chance, not everyone has been quite so understanding of the jarring renewed acceptance of the disgraced ex-governor.

In a fabulously petty side-by-side comparison of what was said about Cuomo in 2021 versus 2025, Politico included statements made by Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., Rep. Tom Suozzi, and Rep. Richie Torres, among others. Some highlights? In 2021, Torres had declared on X that New York was “no longer governable under [Cuomo’s] leadership.” But in 2025, he lauded Cuomos “competence” in an interview with the New York Post. Suozzi shared similar sentiments, having previously praised Cuomo’s sexual harassment accusers as “brave” in a press release on his website, only to gush over his “common-sense leadership” on Cuomo’s campaign website come 2025. As for Addabbo Jr., despite specifically noting the findings in the report against Cuomo as the reason he felt the then-governor should resign in a 2021 New York State Senate press release, he’s also since U-turned.

Of course, not everyone is fully leaning into pretend amnesia. Some, like Sen. Jessica Ramos, have even made it clear their support for Cuomo comes down to nothing but logistics. “This is not about forgiveness. This is not about forgetting anything. This is a very sober view of being one week away from early voting and understanding that there are two clear people heading the race, and I want to make sure that we have a mayor that understands how government works,” she said (via Politico). Even so, like we said, not everyone is willing to sit around the campfire singing “Kumbaya.”

AOC and Cynthia Nixon have spoken out against Cuomo

Andrew Cuomo touching his ears during an interview with a pen in his hand

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Rep. Ritchie Torres might believe Andrew Cuomo deserves a “comeback” (dare we coin it the Cuomback? No?), but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sees things pretty differently. In fact, she called out the flip-floppers. “I cannot tell you how shocked I have been … As a survivor of sexual assault, I will never unsee that,” she said at a rally for Cuomo’s rival Zohran Mamdani (via the New York Post).

As for “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, who campaigned against Cuomo for governor back in 2018, she’s been incredibly vocal as well. Speaking in a June 2025 interview with Hasan Minhaj, Nixon said that while some may have forgotten about everything Cuomo was accused of simply because he’d laid low for a few years, she certainly did not think he had changed. “This is not a guy who made a couple of mistakes and apologized and has turned over a new leaf,” she said. Nixon also pointed out that New York taxpayers were footing the bill for his legal action against his accusers. Unlike the aforementioned flip-floppers, it bears mentioning that Nixon has criticized Cuomo for years. In fact, years before the accusations against him emerged, she’d called Cuomo out for hiring someone who’d previously been accused of harassment by women staffers.

As for Cuomo’s accusers, it’s worth noting that the first woman to speak out against him, Lindsay Boylan, does not believe he has changed, either, telling CNN in March 2025, “He has spent the last several years, instead of being apologetic and contrite and taking on accountability, actually using any power he has to smear the women who he harassed and who he victimized.” The real question is, are the sentiments of a survivor any match for a strong track record of “common-sense leadership”? Only time will tell.