ALBANY, NY (AP) – Faced with unprecedented political isolation, New York’s provocative governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday insisted he would not step down after allegations of sexual harassment and condemned the expansive coalition of Democrats who asks for his resignation as ‘reckless’. and dangerous. ”
At the end of the day, the three-term Democratic governor lost the support of almost his entire congressional delegation. None of the deviations did more harm than those of the two U.S. senators in New York, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
“Because of the multiple, credible allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the trust of his government partners and the people of New York,” the Democratic senators wrote in a joint statement. “Governor Cuomo must resign.”
Hours before the statement, Cuomo, a leading critic of former President Donald Trump’s coronavirus pandemic response, provoked the Republican by defending himself against ‘canceling culture’.
“I’m not going to resign,” Cuomo said during an afternoon call with reporters. “I did not do what was alleged. Period. ”
He added: “People know the difference between playing politics, bending to cancel culture and the truth.”
The comments of the fighting governor come on the day when his party in New York and thereafter turned sharply against him after allegations of harassment and criticism. of Cuomo to keep secret how many residents in the nursing home died of COVID-19 for months.
Cuomo’s growing list of opponents now covers virtually every region in the state and the political centers of power in New York and Washington. A majority of Democrats in the state legislature and all but a handful of the state’s 29-member congressional delegation called on him to retire.
The escalating political crisis jeopardizes Cuomo’s re-election in 2022 in an overwhelming Democratic state, threatening to cast a cloud over President Joe Biden’s early tenure. Republicans across the country used the scandal to divert attention from Biden’s success with the pandemic and challenge his party’s established advantage with female voters.
The senators’ statement, citing the pandemic as a reason for ‘firm and consistent leadership’, came shortly after Schumer and Biden stood in a Rose Garden ceremony to hold the Democrat’s passport -supported $ 1.9 billion to celebrate pandemic relief.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to say Friday whether Biden believes Cuomo should resign. She said that every woman who brought up harassment by the governor of New York “deserves to have her voice heard, treated with respect and told her story.”
Dozens of Democrats have already called on Cuomo to resign this week, but the coalition of critics on Friday expanded geographically and politically around supporters of the U.S. rep. To include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York; the leader of the House Democratic campaign, U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney; U.S. Representative Brian Higgins, in Buffalo; and a group of state legislators in Long Island who were Cuomo loyalists.
Never before has the cocky, 63-year-old Democratic governor – the son of a governor in New York – been more politically alone.
“The victims of sexual assault are more about me than politics or other narrow considerations, and I believe Governor Cuomo should step aside,” Maloney said.
Ocasio-Cortez said she believes the women accused Cuomo of misconduct.
‘After two reports of sexual assault, four reports of harassment, and the investigation by the Attorney General, which found that the governor’s manager had hidden nursing home data for the legislature and the public, we agree with the 55+ members of the New York State legislature that the governor should resign, “she tweeted.
Cuomo insisted on Friday that he would never touch anyone improperly, and again said he was sorry if he made someone uncomfortable. He did not want to answer a direct question about whether he had a romantic relationship with one of the women.
“I did not have a sexual relationship that was inappropriate,” he said.
The governor has in recent days called on lawmakers and supporters to urge them not to resign, and rather to support the ongoing investigations. His strategy does not seem to be working.
The state assembly on Thursday allowed an indictment of Cuomo while lawmakers investigate whether there are grounds for forcing him out of office.
The firestorm around the governor has grown after the Albany Times Union reported Wednesday that an unidentified assistant claimed Cuomo had put her hand under her shirt and caught her late last year at his official residence.
The woman has not yet filed a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said Thursday the state reported the allegation to the Albany police station after the woman in question refused to do so herself.
In addition, Cuomo faces several allegations of sexually suggestive remarks and behavior toward women, including female assistants. One assistant said he asked her if she would ever have sex with an older man. And another assistant alleges that the governor kissed her once without permission, saying that the governor’s assistants smeared her in public after she accused him of sexual harassment.
Rarely in the modern era has a leading elected official survived such a political setback of his own party, but there is precedent.
Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, in 2009 refused to resign following a scandal involving an extramarital affair. He is going to serve in Congress. And in 2019, Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam withdrew the military from his resignation after a photo of him in a racist costume appeared. Northam is still in office.
Cuomo promised on Friday that he would still be able to govern despite a growing list of elected officials in New York who say they have lost confidence in his ability to govern.
He did not address the reality of an increasingly untenable position: Cuomo is seeking a fourth term next year, managing the state’s pandemic response and negotiating a state budget with state lawmakers who have lost confidence in his leadership.
He again raised questions about the motives of women accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
“A lot of people claim a lot of things for a lot of reasons,” he said Friday. ‘I will not speculate about people’s possible motives. But I can tell you as a former attorney general who has been through this situation many times, there are often many motivations to make a claim. And therefore you need to know the facts before making a decision. ‘
“Serious allegations need to be seriously considered, right?” he said. “That’s why they’re called serious.”
But dozens of Democrats have already determined that the allegations are serious enough to remove them immediately. Other Republicans in the New York Congressional delegation had earlier called for Cuomo to resign, including Nicole Malliotakis, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney and Lee Zeldin.
Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler, who chairs the U.S. House government committee, said Cuomo had lost the trust of New Yorkers.
“The repeated accusations against the governor and the way he has reacted to them have made it impossible for him to continue ruling at this stage,” Nadler said.
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Peoples reported from New York City. AP author Josh Boak in Washington contributed.