Accused of Harassment | New York governor refuses to resign

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Catherine TRIOMPHE
France Media Agency

“I was not elected by politicians, I was elected by the people of New York State, I will not resign,” Andrew Cuomo, one of America’s most influential governors, said during his first press conference since the scandal erupted last Wednesday.

The voice briefly choked, the 63-year-old Democrat, who has ruled New York State since 2011, said “deeply apologize” for hurting some women.

“I had no idea at the time that I was making anyone uncomfortable. I never meant to offend anyone, hurt anyone, or hurt anyone. I feel horribly wrong that these people were injured, suffered from these interactions ”.

But faced with the calls to resign which have grown in recent days, including in his Democratic camp, he also considered “never to have done anything in (his) career of which (he) should be ashamed” and repeated “n ‘never touching anyone inappropriately’.

He called on New Yorkers to “wait to form an opinion” on the results of the investigation into these allegations which has just been launched by the New York State prosecutor at uncontested independence.

“I’ve been in situations like this too many times, where everyone has an opinion because they’ve read this or that, and suddenly the facts point to a different situation,” Cuomo added. same former prosecutor.

No deadline has been announced for the end of the investigation, which could last for months.

“Falsehoods and inaccuracies”

The governor has been implicated by three women since last Wednesday.

A former economic advisor, Lindsey Boylan, 36, first claimed that he kissed her unsolicited on the mouth and suggested that she play strip poker with him, when she worked with him between 2015 and 2018.

On Saturday, another ex-collaborator, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said the governor had made advances to her that had made her “uncomfortable” in the spring of 2020.

And on Monday, 33-year-old Anna Ruch, who has never worked with him, claimed he had “shocked” her by wanting to kiss her against her will at a wedding in 2019.

A photo was released showing the governor framing M’s face^me Ruch with his hands.

“You will find hundreds of pictures of me kissing people; women, men, children. It’s my usual way of greeting people. And besides, that was my father’s way of greeting people, ”added the son of the late governor Mario Cuomo, who also served three terms, before losing the fourth election in 1994.

His act of contrition on Wednesday, similar in substance to the first apologies he expressed on Sunday via press release, however, seems far from satisfying his accusers.

“How can New Yorkers trust you to run the state if you don’t ‘know’ when you are behaving inappropriately with your employees? Lindsey Boylan responded on Twitter.

Charlotte Bennett retweeted a statement from her lawyer, deeming the governor’s statements “riddled with falsehoods and inaccuracies”.

The scandal raised by these accusations, which came at a time when Mr. Cuomo was already suspected of having concealed the true death toll from COVID-19 in New York retirement homes, knocked the governor down from the pedestal where he had been placed at the start of the pandemic.

With his daily, rational and reassuring press briefings, he had, while New York was hit hard by the pandemic in the spring of 2020, acquired the status of national star. To the point that some urged him to join the race for the White House.

Even if he remains in power, many analysts now believe he will have a hard time running for a fourth term.

Proof that his star has faded, he should also soon be deprived of the special powers that the New York State Parliament had granted him at the start of the pandemic. Parliamentarians from both chambers announced an agreement to this effect on Tuesday.

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