The White House showed signs of losing patience with embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday over accusations he is politicizing COVID-19 vaccine supply, while also calling allegations of sexual harassment against him “troubling” as a new poll showed Mr. Cuomo’s favorability at a historic low.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden administration officials have paid attention to “concerning” reports that Mr. Cuomo’s COVID-19 czar, Larry Schwartz, has been calling county officials in New York to gauge their political support of the governor.
“We were concerned of course about the reports of this inappropriate behavior,” she said. “But we already have a number of steps in the system to ensure that the people of New York, the people of any state, are getting the vaccines distributed fairly and equitably.”
She also said President Biden think the sexual harassment accusations against Mr. Cuomo are “troubling,” and “hard to read.” She said various investigations of the governor need to be “quick and thorough.”
A day earlier, the president said he would withhold judgment of Mr. Cuomo until state investigations are completed, a position which was criticized for giving a political lifeline to the governor.
Despite the growing sense of unease with Mr. Cuomo at the White House, Ms. Psaki said the administration has no plans to push him aside as he leads a scheduled National Governors Association meeting on the pandemic with administration officials on Tuesday. He is chair of the organization.
“I’m not aware of any plan to shift that approach,” she said. “He’s in that position because he is the head of the NGA.”
Mr. Cuomo’s job-approval rating among New Yorkers has dropped to 43%, matching his lowest ever, according to a new Siena College poll released Monday. The survey found that Mr. Cuomo’s favorability is down from 56% in February, and from a high of 77% last year.
Only 32% of registered voters said they would reelect the three-term Democrat, down from 46% just a month ago. Mr. Cuomo has said he intends to run for a fourth term next year.
But the poll also found that 50% of New York voters don’t want Mr. Cuomo to resign, while 35% of respondents said he should step down.
Seven women, most of them former aides, have accused the governor of sexual harassment. The latest is a journalist who said Mr. Cuomo touched her inappropriately.
One of the women met with investigators working for the state attorney general’s office for more than four hours Monday via Zoom, according to her lawyer.
During the interview, Charlotte Bennett revealed new details about Mr. Cuomo’s behavior and what she said was a “sexually hostile work environment,” including a claim the governor frequently made suggestive remarks about the size of his hands.
“One piece of new information that came to light today was the governor’s preoccupation with his hand size and what the large size of his hands indicated to Charlotte and other members of his staff,” her lawyer, Debra Katz, said in a statement.
Ms. Bennett also provided investigators with 120 pages of records from the time of the purported harassment and other documentary evidence to corroborate her accusations, Ms. Katz said.
Mr. Cuomo has denied the allegations but also apologized, saying he never intended to make any woman uncomfortable. At a vaccination event on Long Island on Monday, Mr. Cuomo took a rhetorical detour to discuss New York’s recovery from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“It was a dark, dark period for people,” Mr. Cuomo said. “Sometimes God comes and he knocks you on your rear end for one reason or another. Things happen. The question is what you do when you get knocked on your rear end. And New Yorkers get up, and they get up stronger, and they learn the lesson.”
The governor’s plummeting popularity comes as Democratic officials abandon him in droves. On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, both Democrats, called on Mr. Cuomo to resign, as did a majority of the state’s U.S. House delegation.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday called for an investigation into reports that Mr. Schwartz, a longtime Cuomo aide, was gauging local officials’ support for the governor in his sexual-harassment scandal. Mr. de Blasio blasted the Cuomo administration for allegedly tying vaccine supply to political support.
“That is the definition of corruption,” Mr. de Blasio told reporters. “It is disgusting. It is dangerous. There are lives on the line, and it cannot be tolerated.”
He said there should be a “full investigation” into Mr. Schwartz’s actions.
“I’ll tell you something — [he’d] better not call me. Because I’ll tell him what he can do with that,” Mr. de Blasio said. “It’s unacceptable, and we are not going to stand for it. And if we see any effort to reduce the vaccine supply to New York City as political retribution, we will bring it right out in the open.”
The Washington Post and The New York Times reported over the weekend that Mr. Schwartz was gauging local officials’ political support for the governor. The reports said Mr. Schwartz or another administration official then immediately began discussing the availability of vaccines in various locales.
One unidentified Democratic county official said he planned to file an ethics complaint, believing the governor’s top aides were linking the vaccine to political support.
The state Assembly last week announced it would begin an impeachment investigation of the sexual harassment allegations. He is also facing a federal investigation of an alleged coverup of COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes, and an independent state attorney general’s probe of the harassment claims.
Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel, defended Mr. Schwartz.
“Any suggestion that he acted in any way unethically or in any way other than in the best interest of the New Yorkers that he selflessly served is patently false,” she said in a statement.
⦁ This article was based in part on wire-service reports.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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