House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and a group of Democrats from New York’s congressional delegation called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to resign on Friday. The powerful Democrat is embroiled in twin scandals: six women who have accused the governor of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct, and it has become clear of the last month that his office obscured data on COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents.
“Gov. Cuomo has lost the confidence of the people of New York,” Nadler said in a statement Friday, adding that the governor now serving his third term “must resign.”
“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,” Nadler said.
The House Judiciary Committee Chair said that a probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James would likely provide insight about the governor’s criminal liability, but that lawmakers could render a “political judgment” about Cuomo’s ability to carry out the remainder of his term.
Read my statement calling for the resignation of Governor Andrew Cuomo. pic.twitter.com/JyZntu9HJS
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) March 12, 2021
Nadler’s statement joins that of a growing group of New York Democrats demanding Cuomo’s resignation.
Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) issued a joint statement saying that Cuomo “can no longer effectively lead in the face of so many challenges.”
After two accounts of sexual assault, four accounts of harassment, the Attorney General’s investigation finding the Governor’s admin hid nursing home data from the legislature & public, we agree with the 55+ members of the New York State legislature that the Governor must resign. pic.twitter.com/jV5dwtuVPr
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 12, 2021
“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 State Senate Majority Leader, who have concluded that Governor Cuomo can no longer effectively lead in the face of so many challenges,” the two lawmakers said in a joint statement.
Other statements on Friday came from New York Democratic Reps. Mondaire Jones, Carolyn Maloney, Yvette Clarke, Nydia Velazquez, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat, and Antonio Delgado, joining Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) who had called for Cuomo to resign earlier this month.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) called on Cuomo to “step aside” in a statement Friday saying the allegations described “something that no one should ever have to deal with — especially in the workplace.”
“The victims of sexual assault concern me more than politics or other narrow considerations, and I believe Governor Cuomo must step aside,” he added throwing full confidence behind Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Cuomo’s second-in-command.
It’s unclear whether Cuomo will be able to weather the mounting push for him to leave office. On Sunday had rebuffed the possibility of resignation, saying during a press conference on Sunday that it would be “anti-democratic” for him to step down.
“There is no way I resign,” Cuomo told reporters at the time. “I was elected by the people of New York state. I wasn’t elected by politicians.”
Since then more than 55 New York legislators urged Cuomo to resign in a letter on Thursday.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio (D) had also condemned Cuomo amid the growing allegations of sexual harassment, saying during a press conference on Thursday that the governor could “no longer serve,” and that a report by the Times Union of Albany earlier this week detailing allegations by an aide who said Cuomo had called her to the Executive Mansion and groped her was “absolutely unacceptable.”
