A growing number of members of the Democratic House in New York are calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him. At least nine House Democrats have released statements urging the controversial governor to step down, including Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, and popular progressive Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“The repeated allegations against the governor and the way he has responded to them have made it impossible for him to continue to rule on this point,” Nadler said in a statement. Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of the people of New York. Governor Cuomo must resign. ‘
In a joint statement, Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Jamaal Bowman cited the growing number of allegations against Cuomo, as well as the misleading messages of the COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents, as reasons why the governor should resign. State Attorney General Letitia James released a report accusing the administration of underreporting nursing home deaths by more than 50% last month.
“As members of the New York delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, we believe these women, we believe the reporting, we believe the Attorney General, and we believe the fifty-five members of the New York State legislature, including the Senate Majority Leader, who have concluded that Governor Cuomo can no longer lead effectively in the face of so many challenges, ”said Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman.
Friday morning, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman were joined by representatives Nydia Velázquez, Adriano Espaillat, Grace Meng, Mondaire Jones, Carolyn Maloney, Yvette Clarke, Antonio Delgado, Sean Patrick Maloney, Brian Higgins and Paul Tonko to visit Cuomo. resign. Congressman Kathleen Rice was the first member of the New York delegation to call on Cuomo to resign on March 1.
US Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have yet to request Cuomo’s resignation. Gillibrand, who was the first senator to call Senator Al Franken to resign amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Tuesday that talking about Cuomo’s resignation “is not the right conversation we should. feed.”
Asking every female elect in our state when a person should resign or not resign is really not the conversation we should have. And I have to say, it’s extremely frustrating because not so many men are asked to do so in public. These questions from day to day, “she said.” The women in our state are not meant to be judges, jurors and executioners. ”
Gillibrand has known Cuomo for years as well – she was the Special Counsel for Housing and Urban Development when Cuomo was Secretary of the HUD during President Clinton’s administration.
In a conversation with reporters on Friday, Cuomo denied all charges against him and said he would not resign.
‘I have not done what is said. Period, ”said Cuomo. He also implicitly criticized lawmakers who had called for him to resign, saying they were making decisions without knowing the facts.
“I am not going to resign. I am not elected by the politicians, I am elected by the people,” said Cuomo. “People know the difference between playing politics, bending to cancel culture and the truth.”
Cuomo had said earlier last week that he would not step down, but his office pledged to cooperate with the New York attorney general’s investigation into the claims against him for sexual misconduct.
Meanwhile, New York Assembly speaker Carl Heastie on Thursday authorized an impeachment investigation in the allegations of misconduct he faces.
The governor is also quickly losing support from state legislatures. More than 55 state lawmakers said in a letter Thursday that they want the governor out.
“The budget, the fight against COVID-19 and the reboot of the economy all depend on clear and reliable leadership,” the letter said. “In light of the Governor’s admission of inappropriate behavior and the findings of modified data on deaths in the COVID-19 nursing home, he has lost the trust of the public and state legislature, rendering him ineffective at this time of most pressing emergency. “