Andrew Cuomo Resigns Following Damning Sexual Harassment Report

New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who initially rejected calls to resign after a state legal professional normal investigation final week concluded he had sexually harassed a number of girls, introduced Tuesday he would step down. “Given the circumstances, one of the best ways I may also help now’s if I step apart and let authorities get again to governing,” Cuomo stated at a press convention. “And due to this fact that’s what I’ll do.”

Cuomo, the son of former governor Mario Cuomo, is serving his third time period in workplace and appeared on his means towards successful a fourth in 2022 as he drew widespread praise early on for his dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic. However allegations that his administration undercounted nursing house deaths tarnished that report, whereas it was a sexual misconduct scandal that led to his downfall. 

The governor appeared intent on retaining his grip on energy, ignoring calls to resign from distinguished Democrats—together with President Joe Biden and New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand—and denying having touched anybody inappropriately. He even pushed back towards the claims with a montage of pictures through which he—and different politicians—embraced members of the general public, generally with hugs and kisses. 

A former aide final week told my colleague Chris Smith that Cuomo “gained’t resign till he’s sure he’ll be impeached,” a course of that was moving forward. Nonetheless, for anybody who has “lined Cuomo even for a short while,” tweeted the New York Occasions’s Maggie Haberman, “it’s gorgeous that he’s stepping down as a substitute of combating one thing out.”

Cuomo did proceed to downplay the allegations towards him on Tuesday. “My intuition is to struggle by this controversy, as a result of I actually imagine it’s politically motivated,” the governor stated.

The governor stated his resignation can be efficient in 14 days, with lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul stepping as much as change into the state’s first feminine governor. “I agree with Governor Cuomo’s resolution to step down,” she tweeted. “It’s the proper factor to do and in one of the best curiosity of New Yorkers. As somebody who has served in any respect ranges of presidency and is subsequent within the line of succession, I’m ready to guide as New York State’s 57th Governor.”

The previous congresswoman from Buffalo has drawn national consideration because it turned more and more clear that she may succeed Cuomo, both after he resigned or was eliminated by means of impeachment. Hochul, a average whom longtime Erie County Democratic Celebration chief Len Lenihan described as “a Joe Biden Democrat,” has been Cuomo’s deputy since becoming a member of him on the ticket in 2014. “She’s needed to stroll a advantageous line in being loyal to the governor and being her personal particular person,” former Rep. John J. LaFalce, for whom Hochul beforehand labored in Washington, told Buffalo Information, including: “I believe she has accomplished it exceedingly effectively.”

Within the aftermath of the report, Hochul called Cuomo’s conduct “repulsive and illegal” however stopped in need of demanding his resignation, noting that she can be subsequent within the line of succession. “She assured me that she was able to take over if that was what was required of her,” Liz Krueger, a state senator from Manhattan, told the Occasions of an trade with Hochul a number of weeks in the past. “State officers, legislators, company heads, colleagues and associates are all reaching out to supply recommendation,” one supply advised Buffalo Information. “And I can say she is listening.”

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