Andrew Cuomo Slammed For Keeping Trump's Donations

NEW YORK, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo took heat this week for saying he would keep campaign donations from one of his frequent targets: President Donald Trump. Cuomo, a Democrat, received $64,000 from the real estate mogul-turned-commander in chief from 2001 to 2009, before he was first elected governor in 2010, according to state campaign finance records.

Cynthia Nixon, Cuomo's Democratic primary opponent in this year's gubernatorial race, released an online petition Thursday calling on the governor to return the cash. But Cuomo told reporters he had no plans to do so.

"I’m going to be deeply critical of him and keep the contributions," Cuomo said Thursday after an unrelated event in Brooklyn, according to the New York Daily News.

Cuomo has been a vocal critic of the Republican president in recent months as he has worked to raise his national profile.

But his decision to keep the money didn't quiet the Nixon campaign, which released a new video Friday likening Trump to other real estate donors who, the campaign charges, have given to Cuomo in exchange for preferential treatment.

"Donald Trump and all of the other real estate developers who have given Cuomo millions of dollars did not do it out of the goodness of their hearts," Nixon campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said Friday in a statement. "Real estate developers like Trump give millions to Cuomo because they know the Governor will protect their interests, and that’s exactly what Cuomo does, at the expense of working people."

The Nixon campaign cited news stories and a column detailing cases in which real estate interests that donated to Cuomo's campaign got benefits such as tax breaks.

City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who is waging a Democratic primary campaign for lieutenant governor, also condemned Cuomo's reluctance to return the money from Trump, a Republican who Williams called "the repugnant bigot in the White House."

"This type of leadership in the Democratic party — putting money over morals — is exactly what people now want to reject," Williams said in a statement Thursday.

Nixon's campaign said it raised nearly $22,000 Thursday from a fundraising push based on Trump's donations to Cuomo.

But a Cuomo campaign spokeswoman, Abbey Collins, called the Nixon campaign's attacks "a cheap distraction from a campaign gasping for air." She noted that Trump considered running against Cuomo in 2014.

"Gov. Cuomo is 100 percent focused on continuing to lead the fight against the Trump Administration and win the U.S. House and State Senate so we can keep families together, protect New Yorkers from Trump’s disastrous tax plan, safeguard our state’s environment and defend New Yorkers’ civil rights — and no press release is going to change that," Collins said in a statement.

(Lead image: Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to reporters during the New York Democratic convention in May 2018. Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)