New York state governor announces resignation
Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation on Tuesday, amid accusations of sexual harassment by several women.
Andrew Cuomo, accused of sexual harassment by several women, announced his resignation on Tuesday, a week after a damning report on the case.
AFP
The coronavirus pandemic had made him a national political star. But a year later, weighed down by accusations of sexual harassment, the powerful New York Governor Andrew Cuomo finally threw in the towel and announced his resignation on Tuesday.
“Given the circumstances, the best way to help you is to withdraw,” Andrew Cuomo said in a video statement from his office, also offering his “deep apologies” to women who “felt offended” by his actions. .
The 63-year-old governor, who was in his third term as head of the country’s 4th most populous state (about 20 million people), finally let go, six months after the first calls for his resignation because of of that case and a week after the damning findings of an investigation requested by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
The investigations, contained in a 168-page report, concluded that Andrew Cuomo had violated federal and New York State laws and sexually harassed eleven women, the majority of whom were collaborators and employees, listing numerous actions or attitudes. displaced.
“No credible basis”
“The most serious accusations have no credible basis in the report. And there is a difference between allegations of inappropriate acts and the fact of concluding that there is sexual harassment ”, again defended Andrew Cuomo Tuesday, shortly after a long intervention of his lawyer, who renewed the accusations of bias against Letitia James’ team.
“But that doesn’t mean eleven women weren’t offended. They are. And for that, I apologize deeply, ”added the governor, ensuring that he was not aware of the scope of his actions, while he is accused in some cases of having touched the buttocks or the chest of some. women.
He said his resignation would take effect in 14 days and paid tribute to Vice-Governor Kathy Hochul, “intelligent and competent”, who will replace him immediately, and thus become the first female governor of the State of New York.
Vertiginous fall
The fall is dizzying for this descendant of Italian immigrants, fed into politics by his father Mario Cuomo, who was governor of the state for three terms before him (1983-1994), and who was expected to do better by aiming for a fourth term in 2022.
As the head of state, this former housing secretary to Bill Clinton, who was married to one of Bob Kennedy’s daughters, passed several progressive laws, such as gay marriage in 2011, or the minimum wage at 15 dollars an hour.
National star
It is especially at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, in the spring of 2020, when New York was hit hard by the Covid-19, that Andrew Cuomo acquired the status of national star. With his daily press briefings, rational and reassuring, this experienced but deemed hard and authoritarian politician had changed dimension, embodying the antithesis of Donald Trump, whose announcements on the health crisis were seen as erratic.
His repeated exchanges, in a playful and accomplice tone, with his brother Chris Cuomo, a star journalist of CNN, had also marked the viewers confined.
But the governor’s record had, however, already been tarnished by a case of underestimation of the number of deaths from Covid-19 in retirement homes, then by accusations of sexual harassment, which had emerged at the beginning of the year.
Lonely
Describing himself readily as a “fighter” as he repeated on Tuesday, Andrew Cuomo was more and more alone. For a week, calls for resignation had come from all sides and as soon as the report came out, US President Joe Biden had asked him to step down.
In addition, New York State parliamentarians seemed increasingly determined to speed things up to secure an impeachment trial, and a former aide’s complaint, filed last week, had paved the way for possible legal proceedings.
This former collaborator came out of anonymity Monday by testifying on the CBS channel to tell how her “dream job” had “turned into a nightmare”. Among the most serious accusations, she accuses the governor of having put his hand under her blouse to touch her breast.
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