Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand released a joint statement on Friday urging New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign after a series of women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct.
“Confronting and overcoming the Covid crisis requires sure and steady leadership,” the Democrat senators said in a joint statement. “We commend the brave actions of the individuals who have come forward with serious allegations of abuse and misconduct. 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 the people of New York. Governor Cuomo should resign.”
On Tuesday, a sixth accuser came forward alleging that Cuomo, “reached under her blouse and began to fondle her,” according to the Times Union.
BREAKING: NY Sens Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand call for Gov. Cuomo to resign, saying he’s “lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York” after "multiple, credible sexual harassment & misconduct allegations"
More tonight on the @CBSEveningNews pic.twitter.com/3ACWfy2yLw
— Norah O'Donnell 🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) March 12, 2021
The statement made no mention of Cuomo’s March 25, 2020 policy, which said elderly patients with COVID-19, discharged from hospitals, should return to their care facilities or that the governor’s top aides deliberately changed an internal Health Department report released in July. This week, the New York Times reported that aides in Cuomo’s office altered a Health Department report last summer to omit the deaths of approximately 9,000 nursing home residents who succumbed to COVID-19.
This statement mentions nothing about the thousands of nursing home deaths Cuomo covered up https://t.co/dCyxefn7rW
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 12, 2021
The development comes after New York state Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo, his administration, and the state’s Health Department severely undercounted the number of COVID-related deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.
The governor previously refused to resign despite weeks of backlash over not only his concealment of approximately 15,000 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes as a result of a policy from his office, but also the ongoing and growing sexual harassment allegations against him.
“I’m not going to resign. I work for the people of the state of New York. They elected me, and I’m going to serve the people of the state in New York,” Cuomo told reporters. “I’m going to do the job the people of the state elected me to do.”
