Biden calls on NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign over sexual harassment claims

By Michael R Sisak and Marina VilleneuveUpdated August 4, 2021 â€" 7.25amfirst published at 1.18amNormal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size

Washington: US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo should resign in light of a report by the state attorney general that found the Democratic governor had sexually harassed 11 women.

“I think he should resign,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was found to have sexually harassed multiple employees.Credit:Getty

New York Attorney-General Letitia James unveiled the results of an investigation earlier on Tuesday that showed Cuomo had engaged in unwanted groping, kissing and hugging and made inappropriate comments to multiple women.

Biden previously said that if the investigation determined Cuomo acted inappropriately, he would call for his resignation. On Tuesday, Biden said he stuck by those comments in calling for the Democratic governor to step down.

The investigation found Cuomo groped, kissed or made suggestive comments to 11 women and created a “toxic” workplace in violation of the law.

In a recorded statement after the attorney-general unveiled the findings of the five-month independent inquiry, Cuomo denied he had acted inappropriately and made clear he has no plans to resign.

‘I think he should resign’: US President Joe Biden.Credit:AP

The civil investigation will not directly lead to criminal charges against Cuomo.

Only minutes earlier, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi also called on Cuomo to resign.

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“As always, I commend the women who came forward to speak their truth,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Recognising his love of New York and the respect for the office he holds, I call upon the Governor to resign.”

New York’s Democratic congressional delegation has called for Cuomo’s resignation, as well, The Hill has reported.

“We commend the brave women who came forward and spoke truth to power,” a joint statement said. “The time has come for Governor Andrew Cuomo to do the right thing for the people of New York State and resign.”

Cuomo remained defiant following the investigation’s findings, saying that “the facts are much different than what has been portrayed” and appearing to reject calls to resign.

The nearly five-month investigation found that Cuomo’s administration was a “hostile work environment” and was “rife with fear and intimidation”. The probe, conducted by two outside lawyers, involved interviews with 179 people including Cuomo’s accusers, current and former administration employees and the Governor himself.

Employment lawyer Anne Clark, who led the probe with former US Attorney Joon Kim, said they found 11 accusers to be credible, noting the allegations were corroborated to varying degrees, including by other witnesses and contemporaneous text messages.

“These interviews and pieces of evidence revealed a deeply disturbing yet clear picture: Governor Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees in violation of federal and state laws,” New York Attorney-General Letitia James said at a press conference.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called on Cuomo to resign.Credit:AP

The investigation’s findings, detailed in a 165-page public report, turn up the pressure on the 63-year-old Governor, who just a year ago was widely hailed for his steady leadership during the darkest days of the COVID-19 crisis, even writing a book about it.

Since then, he’s seen his standing crumble with a drumbeat of harassment allegations, questions in a separate, ongoing inquiry into whether state resources went into writing the book, and the discovery that his administration concealed the true number of nursing home deaths during the outbreak.

Though James’ investigation concluded without any referrals to criminal prosecutors, local authorities could decide to use its evidence and findings to mount their own cases. The report is also expected to play an important role in an ongoing inquiry in the state Assembly into whether there are grounds for Cuomo to be impeached.

New York Attorney-General Letitia James, left, announces the results of the investigation, alongside former US Attorney Joon Kim.Credit:AP

Several of Cuomo’s accusers demanded swifter action, calling on the Governor to leave office immediately. Some Democratic and Republican state lawmakers joined them, along with one-time Cuomo allies including county executives and leaders of left-leaning political groups.

“Resign, @NYGovCuomo,” accuser Charlotte Bennett tweeted.

On at least one occasion, the investigation found, Cuomo and his senior staff worked to retaliate against a former employee who accused him of wrongdoing. Cuomo was also found to have harassed women outside of government, the investigation found.

The report detailed, for the first time, allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed a female state trooper on his security detail. It said that the Governor ran his hand or fingers across her stomach and her back, kissed her on the cheek, asked for her help in finding a girlfriend and asked why she didn’t wear a dress.

The report also included an allegation from a woman who worked for an energy company who said Cuomo touched her inappropriately at an event. The woman said Cuomo ran his fingers across the lettering on her shirt, reading the name of her company aloud. Then he leaned in and said: “I’m going to say I see a spider on your shoulder,” and brushed his hand in between her shoulder and breasts, the report said.

“These brave women stepped forward to speak truth to power and, in doing so, they expressed faith in the belief that although the Governor may be powerful, the truth is even more so,” Kim said at the press conference.

Cuomo faced multiple allegations last winter that he inappropriately touched and sexually harassed women who worked with him or who he met at public events. One aide in his office said he groped her breast.

Another, Lindsey Boylan, said Cuomo kissed her on the lips after a meeting in his office and “would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs”.

After Boylan first made her allegations public in December, the Cuomo administration undercut her story by releasing personnel memos to media outlets revealing that Boylan resigned after she was confronted about complaints she belittled and yelled at her staff.

Boylan has said those records “were leaked to the media in an effort to smear me”.

One of Cuomo’s accusers, Lindsey Boylan, said records “were leaked to the media in an effort to smear me”.Credit:AP

Other aides have said that the Governor asked them unwelcome personal questions about sex and dating. One former aide, Charlotte Bennett, said Cuomo asked if she was open to sex with an older man.

“Some suffered through unwanted touching, and grabbing of their most intimate body parts. Others suffered through repeated offensive, sexually suggestive, or gender-based comments,” Kim said on Tuesday. “A number of them endured both. None of them welcomed it. And all of them found it disturbing, humiliating, uncomfortable and inappropriate.”

In an 11-hour interview with investigators last month, Cuomo admitted to certain behaviour while denying other allegations, investigators said. For example, Clark said, he conceded asking Bennett whether she had been involved with older men and said he may have kissed the state trooper at an event but denied touching her.

Asked about an allegation that he grabbed a woman’s breast at the executive mansion, according to the report, Cuomo responded: “I would have to lose my mind to do such a thing” to a woman he hardly knew with multiple staff members around.

Last winter there was a chorus of calls for Cuomo’s resignation from many top elected Democrats in New York, including two US senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. But Cuomo refused to quit and has been raising money for a fourth term in office.

His position on the allegations has also hardened into one of defiance. Cuomo has always denied touching anyone inappropriately, but he initially said he was sorry if his behaviour with women was “misinterpreted as unwanted flirtation.” In recent months, he’s taken a more combative tack, saying he did nothing wrong and questioning the motives of accusers and critics.

He has also questioned the neutrality of the lawyers hired by the Attorney-General to investigate the allegations. Kim, was involved in previous investigations of corruption by people in Cuomo’s administration when he was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. Cuomo hasn’t expressly said why he believes that would make Kim biased.

In the hours leading into James’ announcement, Cuomo’s office issued numerous press releases including the completion of mixed-use housing in Buffalo, plans to build a new $US3.9 billion terminal at Kennedy Airport and JetBlue’s decision to keep its headquarters in New York. As James was speaking, Cuomo’s publicists sent out a release about reclaiming the sites of old power plants.

The Assembly hired its own legal team to investigate Cuomo’s conduct, plus other allegations of wrongdoing. The legislature is looking into the help Cuomo got from senior aides to write a book about the pandemic, special access that Cuomo relatives got to COVID-19 testing last year, and the administration’s decision to withhold some data on nursing home deaths from the public for several months.

Some members of the judiciary committee have said they expect James’ report to be “critical” for the impeachment investigation.

New York state regulations say sexual harassment includes unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature â€" from unwanted flirtation to sexual jokes â€" that creates an offensive work environment, regardless of a perpetrator’s intent.

The Governor, in contrast, has repeatedly argued that he did not intend to harass anyone. His office has said he took the state’s mandated sexual harassment training, but has not provided any documentation proving he did.

Cuomo championed a landmark 2019 state law that made it easier for sexual harassment victims to prove their case in court. Alleged victims no longer have to meet the high bar of proving sexual harassment is “severe and pervasive”.

AP, Reuters

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