Charlie Baker, Joe Biden call on Andrew Cuomo to resign after bombshell sexual harassment report

Gov. Charlie Baker and President Joe Biden are among those calling on a defiant New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign after a bombshell report found he sexually harassed at least 11 women and worked to retaliate against one of them.

“He should resign,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

The president’s statement echoed those made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York’s U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, all Democrats.

Baker, another former Cuomo ally, also said the embattled New York governor should step down.

“If the news coverage, which is extraordinary, is — and I would assume it is — an accurate representation of the report itself, then I don’t see how he can continue to do his job,” Baker said on Tuesday.

Baker and Cuomo together captured the nation’s attention amid the coronavirus pandemic, hailed for their sturdy leadership as the COVID-19 death toll ticked up in the darkest days of the pandemic. But Cuomo’s fall from grace started early this year when a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office revealed the Cuomo administration was sorely undercounting nursing home COVID deaths.

The latest report released from fellow Democrat James’s office concluded that 11 women — in and out of state government — who said that Cuomo had touched them inappropriately, commented on their appearance or made suggestive comments about their sex lives were telling the truth. The 165-page report is the culmination of a nearly five-month investigation led by two outside lawyers.

Accusers included an aide who said Cuomo groped her breast at the governor’s mansion and a state trooper on his security detail, who said he ran his hand or fingers across her stomach and her back.

Cuomo, 63, has flatly denied the allegations. His lawyer Rita Glavin released a point-by-point rebuttal that included several pages of pictures of Cuomo hugging people contrasted with photos of other politicians, including former President Barack Obama, hugging constituents.

“I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” Cuomo said in a video response released Tuesday where he accused investigators of “bias.”

Cuomo conceded he had behaved toward some women in a way that made them feel “uncomfortable.” He referenced a photo published on the front page of The New York Times of him touching a woman’s face as he kissed her on the cheek as she recoiled.

That woman took offense at his gesture, which Cuomo said was “meant to convey warmth, nothing more.”

“For that, I apologize,” Cuomo said. “I now understand that there are generational or cultural perspectives that frankly I hadn’t fully appreciated, and I have learned from this.”

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3lnY6uu