ALBANY, NY (AP) – Facing unprecedented political isolation, defiant New York governor Andrew Cuomo insisted on Friday that he would not waive accusations of sexual harassment and condemned the expansive coalition of Democrats who called for his resignation as “ reckless and dangerous. “
By the end of the day, the three-term Democratic governor had lost the support of almost the entire parliamentary delegation in his state. None of the defections hurt more than those of the two American senators from New York, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
“Due to multiple credible allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his partners in the government and the people of New York,” the Democratic senators wrote in a joint statement. “Governor Cuomo must resign.”
Hours before the declaration, Cuomo, a leading critic of the response to former President Donald Trump’s coronavirus pandemic, called on the Republican to defend himself against “culture cancellation”.
“I will not resign,” Cuomo said during an afternoon phone call with reporters. “I did not do what was alleged. Time course.”
He added: “People know the difference between doing politics, bowing to cancel culture and the truth.”
The distressed governor’s comments came on the day his party in New York and beyond turned strongly against him after allegations of harassment and widespread criticism. de Cuomo for keeping secret how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19 for months.
Cuomo’s growing list of detractors now covers virtually every region of the state and the centers of political power in New York City and Washington. Most Democrats in the state legislature and all but a handful of members of the state’s congressional delegation asked him to step down.
The escalating political crisis jeopardizes Cuomo’s re-election in 2022 in a predominantly democratic state and threatens to cloud the early days of President Joe Biden in office. Republicans across the country took advantage of the scandal to try to distract Biden’s success from the pandemic and challenge his party’s well-established advantage with voters.
The senators’ statement, which cited the pandemic as a reason for the need for “firm and secure leadership”, came shortly after Schumer stood by Biden in a ceremony at the Rose Garden celebrating the passing of the pandemic relief bill $ 1.9 trillion supported by Democrats.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday declined to say whether Biden believes Cuomo should step down. She said that every woman who reported the New York governor’s harassment “deserves to have its voice heard, must be treated with respect and must be able to tell its story.”
Dozens of Democrats had already called for Cuomo to step down this week, but the coalition of critics expanded geographically and politically on Friday to include names like progressive US MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the leader of the Democrats’ campaign arm in the House, US Representative Sean Patrick Maloney; Brian Higgins, American deputy based in Buffalo; and a group of Long Island state lawmakers who were loyal to Cuomo.
Never before has the impetuous 63-year-old Democratic governor – the son of a New York governor himself – been more politically alone.
“Victims of sexual assault worry me more than politics or other narrow considerations, and I believe that Governor Cuomo should step aside,” said Maloney.
Ocasio-Cortez said he believed in the women who accused Cuomo of wrongdoing.
“After two reports of sexual assault, four reports of harassment, the attorney general’s investigation finding that the governor’s administrator hid data from the legislature and the public’s nursing home, we agree with the more than 55 members of the state legislature New York that the governor must resign, ”she tweeted.
Cuomo, on Friday, insisted that he never touched anyone inappropriately and said again that he regrets making someone feel uncomfortable. He refused to answer a direct question about whether he had a consensual romantic relationship with any of the women.
“I never had sexual intercourse that was inappropriate, period,” he said.
The governor in recent days has been calling lawmakers and supporters, asking them to avoid asking for his resignation and instead to support ongoing investigations. Your strategy doesn’t seem to be working.
The state assembly allowed an impeachment investigation in Cuomo on Thursday, while lawmakers investigated whether there were reasons for his forced removal from office.
The storm around the governor has increased after the Albany Times Union reported on Wednesday that an unidentified aide claimed that Cuomo reached under her shirt and stroked it at his official residence last year.
The woman did not file a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said on Thursday that the state reported the allegation to the Albany Police Department after the woman involved refused to do so.
In addition, Cuomo is facing several allegations of sexually suggestive comments and behavior towards women, including female auxiliaries. An aide said he asked her if she would have sex with an older man. And another aide claimed that the governor once kissed her without consent, and said that the governor’s aides publicly defamed her after she accused him of sexual harassment.
Rarely in the modern era has an elected leader survived such a political reaction from his own party, but there are precedents.
Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, a Republican, refused to resign in 2009 after a scandal involving an extramarital affair. He would serve in Congress. And in 2019, Virginia’s Democratic governor Ralph Northam resisted widespread calls for his resignation after a photo of him in a racist outfit appeared. Northam is still in office.
Cuomo promised on Friday that he would still be able to govern, despite a growing list of elected New York officials who say they have lost faith in their 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 legislators who have lost confidence in his leadership.
He again raised questions about the motives of the women who accused him of inappropriate behavior.
“Many people claim a lot of things for a variety of reasons,” he said on Friday. “I’m not going to speculate on people’s possible motives. But I can tell you, as a former attorney general, that you have been through this situation many times, there are often many reasons to make a complaint. And that is why you need to know the facts before making a decision. “
“Serious claims must be taken seriously, right?” he said. “That’s why they are called serious.”
But dozens of Democrats have already determined that the charges are serious enough to warrant their immediate removal. Other Republicans in the New York Congressional delegation called for Cuomo’s resignation, including Nicole Malliotakis, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney and Lee Zeldin.
Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler, who chairs the US House’s powerful Judiciary Committee, said Cuomo had lost confidence in New Yorkers.
“The repeated accusations against the governor and the way he responded to them made it impossible for him to continue to govern at this time,” said Nadler.
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People reported from New York City. AP writer Josh Boak of Washington contributed.