New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Wednesday blasted the National Rifle Association (NRA) for sending him a candidate questionnaire amid his reelection bid.
“I received your 2018 N.Y. Candidate Questionnaire,” Cuomo wrote in a public letter to the NRA. “I imagine it was sent to me in error or as some twisted joke.”
“In case you forgot, this year, last year, the year before, and the year before that — I received an F rating from the NRA,” he added. “I’ll take my F rating again this year and wear it with pride.”
The NRA doles out letter grades to candidates based on their support for its agenda.
“And, by the way, I’ll see you in court,” he wrote at the end of the letter, referring to the NRA’s ongoing lawsuit against the governor.
The NRA alleges in a lawsuit that it is facing financial danger after the state of New York pressured financial institutions to cut ties. In a court filing first reported by Rolling Stone, the NRA claims Cuomo directed a “viewpoint-based discrimination campaign against the NRA and the millions of law-abiding gun owners that it represents.”
In particular, the lawsuit claims Cuomo, alongside New York’s Department of Financial Services and the state’s superintendent of financial services, Maria Vullo, told banks and insurers that it is “bad business in New York to do business with the NRA.”
Cuomo announced last Friday that New York would be filing a motion to dismiss the NRA’s lawsuit.
“New York will not be intimidated by the NRA’s frivolous lawsuit to advance its dangerous gun-peddling agenda,” he said in a statement last week. “Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpGary Cohn says Trump trade adviser the only economist in world who believes in tariffs House transportation committee chairman threatens to subpoena Boeing, FAA communication Pentagon sets new limits on transgender service members MORE and Washington, DC may be bought and paid for by the NRA, but in New York we are listening to the voices of people across the nation calling for action to keep our communities safe.”
“While the NRA tries to play the victim, New York stands with the real victims — the thousands of people whose lives are cut short by gun violence every year,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo is facing a primary challenge in his reelection bid against left-wing candidate Cynthia Nixon, a longtime activist and former star of the television show “Sex and the City.” He is leading Nixon, 60 percent to 29 percent, according to a recent poll of likely Democratic primary voters.