New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday supported a growing chorus of calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign amid a slew of sexual misconduct accusations made against him.
“The specific allegation that the governor called an employee of his, someone who he had power over, called them to a private place, and then sexually assaulted her, it’s absolutely unacceptable,” he continued. “It is disgusting to me, and he can no longer serve as governor. It’s as simple as that.”
Cuomo, 63, has repeatedly denied the allegations the different women made against him, which are mostly former aides of the Democratic governor.
In relation to the sixth and most recent accusations made against him, Cuomo on Wednesday denied a report that he allegedly reached under the shirt of a female staff member and sexually assaulted her after inviting her for a work-related purpose.
“I have never done anything like this,” Cuomo said through a spokesperson on Wednesday, calling the details of the claims “gut-wrenching.”
The governor at the time said the claims are “not true” and described Hinton as a “long-time political adversary.” Hinton is one of the governor’s former press aides.
The governor has also recently been under fire for withholding COVID-19 death data from state lawmakers and the public.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, published a report in January that found that the state under-counted nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent, while the New York Post later reported that one of Cuomo’s aides, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to lawmakers in a private setting that the administration hid nursing home data last summer due to a federal probe.
Cuomo’s office hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment by The Epoch Times. His office previously issued a statement saying he “never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm.”
Last weekend, the two top Democrats in New York’s state legislature called on the governor to resign, saying the allegations have undermined his ability to lead.
“As socialists and as elected representatives, we must demonstrate solidarity in this moment and ensure Governor Cuomo cannot simply walk away from these accusations,” they wrote.
The lawmakers in their letter said that the Cuomo administration’s admission of “withholding critical information, including the thousands of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, from the public and from the federal government” was sufficient to proceed with the governor’s impeachment, before the emergence of sexual harassment allegations.
On Thursday, more than 55 Democratic New York legislators followed suit in a letter calling for Cuomo’s resignation.
New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said on Thursday he authorized its Judiciary Committee to start an “impeachment investigation” into sexual misconduct allegations six women have made against Cuomo.
