NY Assemblyman Ron Kim: The Governor threatened me during a phone call and said he would “destroy” me publicly if I didn’t put out a corrective statement on a possibly faulty NYPost story.
Gov Andrew Cuomo: I did no such thing. I called Mr. Kim, who informed me that he had been misquoted, and so I offered him some constructive advice. That is all.
As Ted Cruz famously said during the Kavanaugh hearings, “so the two stories are in conflict, and we are left with trying to glean the truth from what little facts we have.”
May I offer a couple of facts that may help you decide who’s lying?
- Several members of the Assembly have come forward with stories similar to Ron Kim’s.
- No one, NO ONE, has come forward to side with the Governor.
- The NYPost reporter in the middle of this story – Bernadette Hogan – has said that Ron Kim was not misquoted, Ron Kim never complained to her about what she wrote, and Ron Kim has often been a good source who has provided credible information.
- Ron Kim’s account of the infamous Melissa DeRosa zoom meeting now checks out with the release of the transcript.
- Gov Cuomo loves to say, “New York Tough”. Would a NY Tough guy NOT threaten a perceived adversary? After all, he publicly accused Kim of being in a pay-for-play scheme, so why would that same Governor take a softer tone with Kim on a private phone call?
Who’s lying? We may never know. But as we speculate, mull those five facts over…