He’s not going anywhere.
Following another day of upheaval against Andrew Cuomo, the governor held a press call on Friday in which he repeated his stance that he will not quit the office even in the face of an impeachment investigation.
The three-term governor made his case that he was innocent on allegations of sexual harassment from all six women — simultaneously denying the charges against him while saying he supports women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations. Cuomo insisted that everyone wait until the investigations against him are concluded before forming an opinion.
Cuomo also slammed dozens of federal and state lawmakers across New York who have, in recent days, called for the governor’s resignation.
“The people of New York, should not have confidence in a politician who takes a position without knowing any facts or substance. That, my friends, is politics at its worst politicians take positions for all sorts of reasons, including political expediency and bowing to pressure. But people know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture and the truth,” Cuomo said. “Let the review proceed. I’m not going to resign. I was not elected by the politicians, I was elected by the people.”
According to Cuomo, the possibility that he may have thought his actions were consensual was beyond the scope of his reckoning because of the number of people he rubs elbows with.
He additionally did not address a follow-up question about whether or not there could have been a misunderstanding of a possible romantic relationship with any of his accusers — the majority of whom are former or current aides.
“Look, it’s very simple. I never harassed anyone. I never abused anyone. I never assaulted anyone. Is it possible that I have taken a picture with a person who, after the fact, says they were uncomfortable with the pose and the picture. Yes. And that’s what you’re hearing about,” Cuomo said. “I’ve even gone through situations in my administration, where we had terrible emergencies and floods and disasters and we had to take care of that. And we had to do everything else at the same time I had to fight Donald Trump for four years, every day, and run the state. I’ve had investigations before in the state that went on for years by federal prosecutors and continued to operate the state.”
Prior to Cuomo’s conference call, Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that he believed Cuomo should go because public confidence in his leadership has been compromised, and the inability to do his job amid scandal leaves New Yorkers at a disadvantage.
“The Governor should do the right thing and recognize that he just can’t do the job any longer. He’s lost the faith of his fellow leaders around the State and I think he’s increasingly losing the faith of the people, and unfortunately this is because of his own actions and the actions that he directed his team to do,” de Blasio said. “But if he tries to persist in the role, then the impeachment process I believe we’ll resolve it that way. In the meantime, the work of government’s going to keep going forward. You know, we are here every single day doing our work. The State Legislature is doing its work very effectively on a host of issues. We’re going to keep moving forward no matter what. But I think he should do something that’s decent after these many, many indecent revelations and simply resign.”
Nevertheless, Cuomo has stated again and again that he will not be distracted by the controversies surrounding him.
