by Mary Margaret Olohan
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called for Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign Friday over allegations of sexual misconduct and assault.
The Democratic senators released a statement Friday afternoon after the majority of the New York Democratic congressional delegation called for Cuomo’s resignation in coinciding statements Friday morning. One of Cuomo’s accusers, Lindsey Boylan, had announced earlier Friday that she would focus a political action committee against both Schumer and Gillibrand since they had not yet called for Cuomo to resign.
“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 and the people of New York,” Schumer and Gillibrand said in a joint statement.
“Governor Cuomo should resign,” they said.
Schumer and Gillibrand in joint statement: "Governor Cuomo should resign.” pic.twitter.com/rhJ0JO6hZF
— Stephen Sanchez (@SSanchezTV) March 12, 2021
The governor indirectly addressed calls for his resignation by pushing for lawmakers to wait for the facts before making decisions during a Friday afternoon press call.
“There are facts, and then there are opinions, and I’ve always separated the two,” Cuomo said. “Politicians who don’t know a single fact, but yet form a conclusion and an opinion, are in my opinion, reckless, and dangerous.”
“The people of New York should not have confidence in a politician who takes a position without knowing any facts or substance,” Cuomo said. “That, my friends, is politics at its worst. Politicians take positions for all sorts of reasons, including political expediency and bowing to pressure. But people know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth.”
Cuomo faces two separate investigations: one by the attorney general’s office into allegations of workplace sexual misconduct, and another from the Department of Justice into his role in undercounting nursing home deaths in New York. The governor said Friday that no one wants the reviews to conclude “more quickly and more thoroughly” than he does.
The sixth Cuomo accuser claimed the governor inappropriately touched her when she was at his mansion for work last year, an official close to the matter told the Albany Times Union Tuesday. The publication withheld her name since she could not immediately be reached for comment, but noted that she is a member of the governor’s Executive Chamber staff.
On Wednesday, the Albany Times Union reported that the woman accused Cuomo of groping her when she was at the governor’s mansion. The governor allegedly summoned her to his private residence on the second floor of the mansion, where he allegedly reached under her blouse and began groping her, according to the Times Union.
Albany Police spokesman Steve Smith told the New York Times Thursday that the department had reached out to the sixth alleged victim’s representative but has not received a formal complaint from the accuser, who remains anonymous.
The police department has not opened a criminal investigation but did offer its services to the accuser, Smith said, “as we would do with any other report or incident.”
Cuomo denied the allegations in a Thursday statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“As I said previously, I have never done anything like this,” Cuomo said. “The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the Attorney General’s report.”
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Mary Margaret Olohan is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
