New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday said Gov. Andrew Cuomo “doesn’t have any credibility” and will probably face impeachment over the burgeoning sexual harassment scandal that’s prompted Democrats to abandon Mr. Cuomo in droves.
There wasn’t much love between Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo to begin with, but pressure on the governor escalated late Friday when New York’s two senators, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, added their voices to the chorus of Democrats calling for him to step down.
In a joint statement, the Democratic senators said their state needs new leadership in Albany. They said they believe the allegations leveled by six women against Mr. Cuomo.
“Confronting and overcoming the COVID crisis requires sure and study leadership,” they said. “We commend the brave actions of the individuals who have come forward with serious allegations of abuse and misconduct. Due to the multiple credible sexual-harassment and misconduct allegations, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York. Governor Cuomo should resign.”
Mr. de Blasio said he doesn’t think Mr. Cuomo will listen to them but instead will wait for impeachment proceedings.
“I think he’ll try to hold out,” Mr. de Blasio said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “He is used to getting his way.
“It’s been almost an imperial governorship. But I gotta tell ya, the folks in this state and political leadership don’t believe him anymore,” the mayor said. “He doesn’t have any credibility. I think an impeachment proceeding will begin and I think he will be impeached and perhaps right before that, he’ll decide to resign.”
President Biden, returning to the White House Sunday from Delaware, was asked if Mr. Cuomo should resign.
“I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us,” the president said.
Six women say the governor sexually harassed them or made them feel uncomfortable.
A 25-year-old former aide, Charlotte Bennett, said the governor, 63, asked about her sex life and if age was an important factor in romantic relationships, while former aide Lindsey Boylan, 36, said the governor kissed her on the lips, unsolicited.
A 33-year-old woman said the governor touched her lower back and put his hands on her cheeks and sought a kiss. Since then, a former aide from Mr. Cuomo’s time as housing secretary accused him of giving her an “intimate embrace” in a hotel room in 2000, before The Wall Street Journal reported that Ana Liss, a former aide, said the governor asked her questions about her romantic life and kissing her hand.
The Times Union of Albany reported that an unidentified sixth woman says Mr. Cuomo groped her at the governor’s mansion after she was summoned there.
A defiant Mr. Cuomo said he won’t resign.
“I never harassed anyone, I never abused anyone, I never assaulted anyone,” he told reporters Friday on a press call. “Politicians who don’t know a single fact but yet form a conclusion and an opinion, are in my opinion reckless and dangerous. People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth.”
He specifically denied the allegation of groping, which could rise to a criminal offense, and he explained away his actions at one point by saying that he naturally touches people when they desire to be in photographs with him.
The walls have been closing in on Mr. Cuomo for days the New York Assembly announced on Thursday that it will conduct an impeachment investigation of Mr. Cuomo’s actions.
State Attorney General Letitia James also is conducting an independent investigation.
He is also facing a federal investigation into allegations that his administration covered up the number of COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes.
The spiraling developments were a breathtakingly rapid fall in stature for a governor who won an Emmy last year for his televised COVID-19 briefings. The media at the time portrayed him as a positive alternative leader to then-President Trump during the worst of the pandemic. The governor seized on his popularity at the time to write a book about it.
“Everything was about his public image,” Mr. de Blasio said Sunday.
Mr. Cuomo held the press conference Friday to respond to news that at least 13 House Democrats from New York, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, had earlier in the day called for his resignation.
“The repeated accusations against the governor, and the manner in which he has responded to them, have made it impossible for him to continue to govern at this point,” Mr. Nadler said. House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney also was among those urging Mr. Cuomo to step down. The others are Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Grace Meng, Yvette Clarke, Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velazquez and Antonio Delgado.
In a joint statement, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Bowman said they believed the women who came forward with accusations and agreed with the long list of people “who have concluded that Governor Cuomo can no longer effectively lead in the face of so many challenges.”
The governor replied, “There is still a question of the truth. I did not do what has been alleged, period. I won’t speculate about people’s possible motives.”
Mr. Schumer and Ms. Gillibrand had been noncommittal as the accusations against the governor mounted, and the reluctance to speak out spurred accusations of hypocrisy.
Two years ago, Ms. Gillibrand had defended her role in demanding the resignation of Sen. Al Franken for alleged sexual harassment, dismissing concerns that she led a rush to judgment of her Democratic colleague without an investigation.
But she had been mum on the subject of the governor’s resignation until late Friday.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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