Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I-Schoharie) is renewing his call for the governor to be removed from office following a bombshell report that the governor had secured exclusive access for himself, members of his family, and others personally and politically close to him for state-administered COVID-19 tests before they were made widely available to the general public. These specially arranged tests were conducted during a time when state labs only had the capacity to process a few hundred tests each day and were at points rushed by state police troopers in special trips to state-run labs for speedy processing.

“This story is just the latest example of the governor’s willingness to jeopardize the public’s well-being to benefit himself and those close to him,” said Tague. “We now know that the governor shut countless small businesses down throughout the state for the sake of saving lives, all while wasting our state’s testing capacity during the height of the pandemic when we needed it most. Those tests could have helped us stop the spread of COVID-19 and saved lives but were instead hoarded away to protect those in the governor’s inner circle, all while fatalities rose by the day. This revelation would warrant impeachment in and of itself but is sadly just one of many recently revealed incidents of gross wrongdoing by our executive. Gov. Cuomo is in no way fit to lead and must either resign or be impeached immediately.”