Cuomo Pans Impeachment Probe A Day After Demanding It: Reports

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo reportedly threw cold water on the congressional probe that could lead to President Donald Trump's impeachment just a day after he called for the inquiry.

At a live Thursday evening conversation with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Cuomo said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bowed to pressure from "leftist" lawmakers in launching the "quote-unquote inquiry," which he said would take the nation "down a very long and unproductive road," according to multiple news reports from the event.

"Speaker Pelosi was dealing with pressure from her caucus and, when you talk about pressure from the left, there is a highly leftist component to the Democratic Party that she was feeling pressure for," Cuomo, a Democrat, told Christie at Seton Hall Law School, according to Politico.

"Where does it go ultimately? Nowhere, because even if they vote for impeachment, it goes to the Senate," he reportedly added.

Cuomo's comments came just a day after he expressed support for Pelosi's decision to open an official impeachment inquiry based on Trump asking his counterpart in Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son.

On a July 25 phone call, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to "do us a favor" and open a probe of the Bidens after Zelensky said his country wanted to buy more weapons to repel Russian-backed rebels, according to a rundown of the call that the White House released this week.

"When the transcript came out today, and you actually see what the president says, you're darn right there should be an inquiry," Cuomo said in a Wednesday radio interview.

Cuomo's claim that far-left lawmakers pushed Pelosi to endorse the probe belies the fact that more than 200 House Democrats support the inquiry. They include New York City Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Gregory Meeks and Hakeem Jeffries, all moderate Democrats who hold leadership positions.

The holdouts opposing impeachment include Democrats in districts that the Republican president won in the 2016 election, such as Staten Island Rep. Max Rose and upstate Rep. Anthony Brindisi.

In his initial comments supporting the impeachment probe, Cuomo acknowledged the fact that it would be "divisive" — but said it was still "the right thing."

"The country is already divided politically," he said Wednesday. "I don't think it is going to be any more divisive than this President has succeeded in dividing us already."

Cuomo Communications Director Dani Lever sought to clarify the governor's latest remarks Friday afternoon, saying Politico "misrepresented" his position.

Cuomo has said the House must move forward with an impeachment probe while also praising Pelosi for taking a "deliberative" approach to the issue as she faced pressure from left-flank Democrats, Lever said.

"Now, there’s no question that the investigation must follow all leads," Lever said in a statement. "The Governor strongly believes that the paths to investigate must include the allegations of the President's solicitation of foreign assistance, the President's abuse of power in effectively extorting the Ukrainian president with federal funds, the reported cover up by the Attorney General of a complaint that implicated Barr himself, and the tampering with government documents in the attempt to secret the transcripts."

This story has been updated with a statement from Dani Lever, Cuomo's communications director.