New York Governor Andrew Cuomo defiantly rejected resignations as more women did come forward with sexual harassment charges against him, saying on Sunday “there is no way” he will step down. But right after her press conference, New York State Senate leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, said she “must step down”.
“Every day there is another account that is moving away from government business,” Stewart-Cousins said in a statement on Sunday afternoon. “We have allegations of sexual harassment, a toxic work environment, loss of credibility around the data on the COVID-19 nursing home and doubts about the construction of a major infrastructure project. New York is still in the middle of this pandemic and still facing the social, health and economic impacts of this. We need to govern without daily distractions. For the good of the state, Governor Cuomo must step down. ”
Assembly President Carl Heastie, also a Democrat, did not go so far as to say openly that Cuomo should resign, but said in a statement that Cuomo should “seriously consider” whether he can lead the state. “I also share the feeling of the Senate majority leader, Stewart-Cousins, about the governor’s ability to continue to lead this state,” said Heastie.
Cuomo insisted on Sunday that he remains focused on COVID-19’s response and the state’s vaccination effort, and said he would not “be distracted” by the allegations.
“I was elected by the people of the state, not by politicians,” Cuomo told reporters on Sunday. “I will not resign because of accusations. The premise of resigning because of accusations is, in fact, undemocratic ”.
Cuomo spent the weekend catching up with state leaders and lawmakers saying he would not resign, two people familiar with the talks told CBS News. In phone calls, the governor repeats what he said publicly: be patient and allow an investigation overseen by New York Attorney General Letitia James to proceed.
In these talks, Cuomo is calling for due process, saying that others who faced similar allegations had the opportunity to investigate before potential accountability, according to a person familiar with the disclosure.
Another person told CBS News that Cuomo has support across the state, “But you never know how deep or wide.”
It was unclear who exactly the governor spoke to or how many calls he made, but the list includes Stewart-Cousins and other lawmakers, the two people said.
Two more women came on Saturday with allegations that Cuomo acted inappropriately, five of whom accused him. While Cuomo said last week he was “embarrassed” and apologized for “any pain I caused”, he adopted a more defiant tone on Sunday. He said that an alleged incident with a woman, Lindsey Boylan, “did not happen”, and he said that Sunday’s allegations by a former aide, Karen Hinton, “are not true”.
One of Cuomo’s accusers, Charlotte Bennett, described him as a “textbook abuser” in an exclusive interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell. Bennett claims that on June 5 – during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the hard-hit New York – Cuomo asked her if she had ever been intimate with an older man and said she felt comfortable dating women decades younger than him. .
Text messages sent by Bennett to a friend and commented on by CBS News in memory of his 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 checked the messages, asked, “Wait what” and “He did something”.
“No,” replied Bennett. “But it was as explicit as it could be.”
When asked by CBS News on Sunday whether he was informed of Bennett’s complaint at the time, Cuomo said it was not. He again insisted that he would be awaiting the results of an investigation by Attorney General Letitia James.
“It is not about me or accusations about me – the attorney general can take care of that. It is about taking care of people’s business,” said Cuomo. “The next six months will determine the future trajectory of the state of New York.”
On Sunday, the editorial board of the Albany Times Union, a newspaper that endorsed Cuomo’s three campaigns for governor, said on Sunday that he must step down.
But the newspaper focused on another scandal that involved the governor: the deaths of thousands of state residents in nursing homes during the pandemic and the alleged attempts by his government to to cover the entire scope of the problem.
“New York cannot overcome this public health crisis if New Yorkers do not know whether the governor and health officials are being honest with them overnight,” wrote the editorial board.
“Today was a hard blow, for sure,” said a state official, guaranteed anonymity to speak frankly about the governor’s political position amid concerns about possible retaliation. “It doesn’t end before it’s over, but it was a bad 24 hours for him.”
Cuomo said he has focused on approving the state budget. The New York state constitution requires the budget to be approved by April 1, and Cuomo presented its budget in mid-January. According to Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, New York will receive $ 12.5 billion in stimulus money in the recently approved federal aid package, although Cuomo had sought $ 15 billion.
“This does not mean that it will be an easy budget, but now it will be a possible budget,” said Cuomo.
Cuomo also announced on Sunday that, with the exception of New York City, restaurants in the state of New York will now be able to open at 75% capacity.
Norah O’Donnell, Michael Kaplan, Julie Morse, Adam Verdugo and Caitlin Yilek contributed to this report.