New York Governor Andrew Cuomo defiantly rejected calls for his resignation as more women did so come on with allegations against him about sexual harassment and said Sunday “there is no way” that he will retire. But shortly after his press conference, New York Senate leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, said he “should resign.”
“There is another report daily that withdraws government affairs,” Stewart-Cousins said in a statement Sunday afternoon. “We have allegations of sexual harassment, a toxic work environment, the loss of credibility surrounding the COVID-19 nursing home data, and questions about the construction of a major infrastructure project. New York is still in the midst of this pandemic and is still what “We must face the societal, health and economic consequences. We must govern without daily distractions. In favor of the state, Governor Cuomo must resign.”
The chairman of the assembly, Carl Heastie, also a Democrat, no longer said outright that Cuomo should resign, but said in a statement that Cuomo should “seriously consider” whether he can lead the state. “I also share the sentiment of Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins regarding the ability of the governor to continue to lead this state,” Heastie said.
Cuomo earlier Sunday insisted he would continue to focus on the state’s COVID-19 response and vaccination effort, saying he would not be “distracted” by the allegations.
“I was elected by the people of the state, not by politicians,” Cuomo told reporters Sunday. “I’m not going to resign because of allegations. The premise of resigning because of allegations is actually anti-democratic.”
Cuomo spent the weekend leading state leaders and lawmakers to say he would not resign, CBS News said. In phone calls, the governor repeats what he said in public: Be patient and allow an investigation under the supervision of New York Attorney General Letitia James to continue.
In these conversations, Cuomo called for the necessary process, saying that others who had faced similar allegations had the opportunity to investigate before it was possible, according to one of the people familiar with the outreach.
Another person told CBS News Cuomo had support across the country: “But you never know how deep or wide. ‘
It was not clear who exactly the governor spoke to or how many calls he made, but the list includes Stewart-Cousins and other lawmakers.
Two more women came forward on Saturday with allegations that Cuomo had acted improperly, making it five women who accused him. While Cuomo said last week he was ’embarrassed’ and apologized for ‘any pain I caused’, he struck a more defiant tone on Sunday. He said an alleged incident with one woman, Lindsey Boylan, “did not happen”, and he said the allegations of a former assistant, Karen Hinton, on Sunday were “not true.”
One of Cuomo’s defendants, Charlotte Bennett, described him in an exclusive interview with anchor Norah O’Donnell, a CBS anchor, as a ‘textbook abuse’. Bennett claims that Cuomo asked her on June 5 – during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in badly hit New York – if she was ever intimate with an older man and said that he was comfortable dating women who is decades younger than he is.
SMS sent by Bennett to a friend and reviewed by CBS News recalled her meeting with Cuomo immediately after the alleged conversation. In the messages, Bennett told a friend that Cuomo ‘talked about age differences in relationships’.
Her friend, who verified the messages, asked, “Wait a minute” and “Did he do something?”
“No,” Bennett replied. “But it was like the most explicit it could be.”
When CBS News was asked on Sunday whether he had been made aware of it Bennett’s complaint at the time, Cuomo said he was not. He again demanded that he await the outcome of an investigation by Attorney General Letitia James.
“It’s not about me or accusations about me – the attorney general can handle it. It’s about doing the people’s business,” Cuomo said. “These next six months will determine the future job of the state of New York.”
On Sunday, the editors of the Albany Times Union, a newspaper that endorsed Cuomo’s three governor campaigns, said on Sunday that he should retire.
But the newspaper focused on the other scandal that fascinated the governor: the deaths of thousands of state residents at nursing homes during the pandemic and the alleged efforts of his government to close the full extent of the problem.
“New York cannot get through this public health crisis if New Yorkers do not know if the governor and health officials are honest with them from one day to the next,” the editors wrote.
“It was definitely a body blow,” a government official said he was anonymous in speaking honestly about the governor’s political position amid concerns over possible retaliation. “It’s not over until it’s over, but it was a bad 24 hours for him.”
Cuomo said he was committed to getting the state budget approved. According to the New York State Constitution, the budget must be approved by April 1, and Cuomo submitted his budget in mid-January. According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York will receive $ 12.5 billion in stimulus money recently passed federal relief package, although Cuomo sought $ 15 billion.
“It does not mean it will be an easy budget, but now it will be a possible budget,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo also announced Sunday that restaurants in New York State, with the exception of New York City, will now be able to open at 75%.
Norah O’Donnell, Michael Kaplan, Julie Morse, Adam Verdugo and Caitlin Yilek contributed to this report.