New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Resigns Amidst Wave Of Sexual Harassment Allegations
Embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned, effective in two weeks, in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal.
In a statement at a press conference this afternoon, he announced he would be "stepping aside" because he does not want to be "unhelpful in any way." He also called the impeachment investigation into him "unfair" and "politically motivated."
"I'm a New Yorker, born and bred. I'm a fighter and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because I truly believe it is politically motivated, I believe it is unfair and it is untruthful and I believe it demonizes behavior that is unsustainable for society," he said at a press conference this afternoon.
"New York tough means New York loving, and I love New York, and I love you. I would never want to be unhelpful in any way."
Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James released the results of an investigation into multiple sexual harassment complaints against Cuomo, concluding that the governor did indeed sexually harass multiple women, "engaging in unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging, and making inappropriate comments." The report also concluded that Cuomo and his staffers had attempted to intimidate the accusers into silence.
After the report's release, multiple high-ranking Democrats, including President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and much of New York's Democrat-led State Assembly called for the governor's resignation. It was believed that if Cuomo had not resigned, impeachment was almost a certainty.
The move was not altogether unexpected considering the pressure Cuomo faced, but those who had followed his career were still surprised to see him voluntarily step aside from office.
It is a tremendous fall from grace for Cuomo, who was widely regarded as a possible future Democratic Presidential candidate and was briefly a pandemic-era celebrity for his daily briefings in the early days of the pandemic, though that too was later marred with reports that he had attempted to obscure the toll of death counts from New York State nursing homes due to COVID-19 after mandating that nursing homes take back residents who had "recovered" from the virus.
Current New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will step in as governor following Cuomo's resignation.
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Chewybunny
This is so political. His handling of the pandemic, sending elderly back to nursing homes that exacerbated the death count, then obscuring that death count. The way he would blame Jews for spreading the pandemic, showing no compassion or empathy for the millions of people who are forced out of their jobs, or losing their small businesses, telling them that if they should just get a job in something "essential". Using state resources to write a book about how great he handled the pandemic. This is why he should have resigned. But instead he is resigning for a bunch of #metoo allegations, that in the report is all alleged, uninvestigated, reads mostly about a flirtatious man creating a hostile work environment, and at worst groped a woman (to which he still denies). I thoroughly am under the opinion that he is a large liability for the Democrat party going into 2022 mid term elections, and had to be removed in a way that ignores his horrible handling of the pandemic.
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100% agree that it's a shame that this is what finally got him, but it'd be worse if they just continued to double down.
If the Dems are finally removing politicians that are burning them in elections, that's 100% a good thing.
Chewybunny
I agree that he should be removed. But I wish the Dems would do this for legitimately good reasons, and be honest about it.