President Biden said Tuesday afternoon that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo should resign after a bombshell investigation by the state attorney general found he had sexually harassed multiple current and former staffers, as well as women who did not work for his administration. Cuomo insisted that he “never touched anyone inappropriately” or “made inappropriate sexual advances.”
Biden’s comments came after several prominent Democrats called for Cuomo to resign, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents New York.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the findings of the investigation earlier Tuesday and said the governor “violated federal and state law.” The probe found a “hostile” and “unsafe” work environment in which women, including a state trooper assigned to the governor’s detail, described “inappropriate groping” and sexual harassment, James said.
She called the 11 women who came forward “heroic.”
“I am inspired by the women who came forward, but more importantly I believe them, and I thank them for their bravery,” James said.
Cuomo, who made a pre-taped statement that aired after the findings were released Tuesday, said that “the facts are much different than what has been portrayed.”
“I am 63 years old. I have lived my entire adult life in public view. That is just not who I am, and that’s not who I have ever been,” the governor said in the statement.
“There are generational and cultural perspectives that frankly, I have not fully appreciated,” Cuomo added. “I have learned from this.”
In an interview with CBS “Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell, Charlotte Bennett, one of the 11 women who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, said that if the govenror isn’t willing to resign, then “then we have a responsibility to act and impeach him.”
“He’s trying to justify himself by making me out to be someone who can’t tell the difference between sexual harassment and mentorship and I think that’s absolutely absurd,” Bennett said.
The investigation was civil in nature, but investigator Anne Clark noted that state and federal prosecutors are free to review all the allegations included in the report. She added that one allegation was referred by the governor’s Executive Chamber to police in Albany, New York.
