The top two Democrats in the New York legislature withdrew their support for Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment and underestimating COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins became the first senior Democrat in the state to say that the three-term governor should step down. Assembly President Carl Heastie did not actually demand that Cuomo resign, but said in a statement that “it is time for the governor to seriously consider whether he can effectively meet the needs of the people of New York.”
ARCHIVE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference at a COVID-19 vaccination site in Brooklyn, New York.
(AP)
On Saturday, another woman who worked for Cuomo publicly accused him of improper behavior, in the wake of other accusations in recent weeks.
“Every day there is another account that is moving away from government business,” Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. “New York is still in the middle of this pandemic and is still facing its social, health and economic impacts. We need to govern without daily distraction. For the good of the state, Governor Cuomo must resign ”.
Her impulse for his resignation came shortly after a news conference on Sunday, in which Cuomo said it would be “undemocratic” to resign.
“They do not nullify the will of the people, they cannot cancel the elections,” Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters when asked about members of his own party calling for his resignation. “I was elected by the people of the state of New York. I was not elected by politicians.”
Cuomo said the next six months will determine the success with which New York will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. “I will not be distracted because there is so much to do for the people,” he said, noting that the state must approve a budget in three weeks and administer an additional 15 million COVID-19 vaccines.
Asked about Ana Liss, who told The Wall Street Journal in a story published on Saturday that when she worked as a political advisor to the governor between 2013 and 2015, Cuomo called her “sweetheart”, kissed her hand and asked personal questions, including whether she had a boyfriend, Cuomo said that this type of conversation was “my way of making friendly games”.
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He acknowledged that social norms have evolved and noted, “I never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”
Liss told the Journal that she initially considered Cuomo’s behavior harmless and never made a formal complaint about it, but it bothered her more and more and she felt she was patronizing.
“It is not really appropriate in any scenario,” she said. “I wish he would take me seriously.”
Karen Hinton, a former Cuomo press officer when he served as President Bill Clinton’s federal housing secretary, detailed an uncomfortable hotel room interaction he had with Cuomo in an article published on Saturday in The Washington Post. Hinton said that when she got up to leave, he gave her a hug that was “too long, too long, too tight, too intimate”.
She described the encounter not as sexual harassment, but as a “power game” for “manipulation and control”. She was no longer Cuomo’s sidekick at the time.
Asked on Sunday about Hinton’s account, Cuomo said it “was not true” and noted that the two had long been political opponents.
Cuomo’s conduct in the workplace has been under intense scrutiny in recent days, when several women have publicly said that they have felt sexually harassed, or at least made them feel humiliated and uncomfortable for him. The state attorney general is investigating.
Former adviser Lindsey Boylan, 36, said he made inappropriate comments about her appearance as he kissed her on the lips at the end of a meeting and suggested a game of strip poker while sitting with other advisers on a jet flight. Another former aide, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said Cuomo asked if she had sex with older men and made other comments that she interpreted as a measure of interest in a case.
Another woman, who did not work for the state, described Cuomo putting his hands on her face and asking if he could kiss her after they met at a wedding.
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At a press conference last week, Cuomo denied having touched anyone inappropriately, but apologized for behaving in a way that he now realized had upset people. He said he made jokes and asked personal questions in an attempt to be playful and often greeted people with hugs and kisses, as his father, Mario Cuomo, did when he was governor.