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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced he would resign after a scathing report from the state attorney general documented multiple accusations of sexual harassment against women. The decision avoids the almost certain impeachment and conviction of Cuomo in the state legislature.
“Given the circumstances, the best way for me to help now is to step back and let the government come back to the government, and so that’s what I will do, because I’m working for you, and doing the right thing. , it’s doing the right thing for you, ”Cuomo said in a televised address, to which he did not answer any questions.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, will serve the remainder of her term when the resignation takes effect in 14 days, and will be the state’s first female governor.
Although Cuomo, 63, has apologized to his accusers, he has made it clear that he does not believe he has crossed a red line requiring impeachment. Instead, he presented his decision as a move necessary to avoid the protracted discussions and divisions that would result in the shutdown of the state government.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” he said, referring to the immediate need to fight Covid. “Government operations and wasting energy for distraction is the last thing government should be. I can’t be the cause. Hard New York means loving New York. And I love New York and I love you. love. Everything I have done was motivated by this. love and I would never want to be useless in any way. “
Speaking to his three daughters, Cuomo said, “I want them to know from the bottom of my heart that I have never done this and that I will never intentionally disrespect a woman, treat any woman differently than what I would like her to be dealt with, and that is the God of honest truth. “
“Your father made mistakes. And he apologized, and he learned from that and that’s the reason for life.”
After being the victim of sexual harassment allegations for the first time earlier this year, Cuomo ignored bipartisan demands to resign and predicted that the investigation he had authorized State Attorney General Letitia James to conduct would exempt it. Instead, the report alleged that he harassed 11 women – nine of whom were state employees – and subjected some of them to unwelcome touching and groping. Her office also retaliated against one of the women after she explained how she was treated, according to the report.
Following the report, the State Assembly began to organize impeachment proceedings. Local law enforcement officials also announced they were investigating whether criminal charges were appropriate.
Cuomo apologized for his behavior on Tuesday, thanked the women who came forward, but insisted he had no intention of harassing any of his accusers.
“I casually hug and kiss people, women and men. I’ve been doing it all my life. It’s been who I am since I can remember,” Cuomo said. “In my mind, I never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize how much the line has been redesigned. There are generational and cultural changes that I just didn’t. not fully appreciated. “
The resignation crowns a remarkable fall from grace for the third-term governor, who topped opinion polls last year after his public briefings on the coronavirus pandemic in his hard-hit state were hailed.
Cuomo intended to run for a fourth term, a feat his three-term governor father, the late Mario Cuomo, was unable to achieve.
That reputation took a hit in January, when James’ office released a report that found the state’s health department had underestimated the death toll from Covid-19 by up to 50% in nursing homes. A senior Cuomo aide was then filmed telling Democratic lawmakers that the administration took months to release the full data on nursing home residents, in part because they feared the information might be released. “used against us” by the Trump administration.
The Brooklyn US attorney and the FBI began a preliminary investigation into how the Cuomo administration handled the data earlier this year.
Cuomo was then accused in mid-February of threatening to “destroy” a Democratic lawmaker who alleged the administration “withheld” nursing home numbers. Cuomo denied that there had been a cover-up.
This was followed by a series of allegations of sexual harassment, including by former collaborators. The first to speak out was Lindsey Boylan, who wrote an essay on the Medium website describing being the victim of “widespread harassment” during her years as governor.
Boylan said Cuomo made many inappropriate comments to her in front of other people, including once asking her to play “strip poker,” and said he once kissed her on the lips when were alone.
Cuomo’s office called Boylan’s claims “just plain bogus,” but they led many other women to come forward to say they had been abused and a flood of Democratic lawmakers calling for his resignation, including the vast majority of the New York Congressional delegation.
Fighting for his political survival, Cuomo allowed James to investigate the harassment allegations and predicted the investigation would exonerate him – but it ended up substantiating all of the allegations against him in a shocking 165-page report.
In one case he allegedly groped an executive assistant under his shirt and in another he allegedly stroked a state soldier, according to the report. The Governor “has sexually harassed a number of current and former New York State employees, among others, by indulging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive nature and which created a hostile work environment for women, “the report alleged.
Cuomo responded to accusations from the female soldier, who accused him of touching her inappropriately while they were in an elevator.
“I didn’t consciously do it with a female soldier,” Cuomo said. “I didn’t hear any sexual connotations, I didn’t hear any intimacy. It was embarrassing to her, and it was disrespectful.”
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