Released from all sides after the results of an investigation accusing him of sexual harassment, threatened on several legal fronts, the Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, appears increasingly isolated, but still resists calls for resignation.
With the release of a damning 165-page report listing the cases of 11 women who claim to have suffered inappropriate gestures or remarks from the 63-year-old governor, New York State Attorney Letitia James, has completed its investigations, which were not intended to lead to an indictment of Andrew Cuomo.
However, the governor is far from having finished on the judicial level. On Wednesday, three prosecutors, those of the counties of Westchester, Manhattan and Nassau, in the State of New York, made it known that they intended to obtain all the useful elements of this report to carry out their own investigation into offenses which would have taken place in their territory.
On Tuesday, the county attorney for Albany, the state capital of New York, where the governor is headquartered, made a similar announcement, citing an “ongoing criminal investigation” in his office.
Politically, Andrew Cuomo, who leads the fourth-largest state in the country by population (about 20 million), seems increasingly alone, as evidenced by the joint call to resign launched by four governors of neighboring states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania), all from his Democratic camp.
They join a long list, which ranges from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, with whom relations were already hostile, to President Joe Biden, long considered his friend.
“I truly believe he should step down for the good of New York State and our people. If he doesn’t, the flood of calls to leave, which is universal at this point, Democrats and Republicans alike, will prevail. If he wants to wait for impeachment, he can, but it could happen soon in our state,” Bill de Blasio told CBS on Wednesday.
Andrew Cuomo defended himself on Tuesday of any indecent act and any assault or sexual harassment. He had already declined the first calls for resignation in March, saying he should only be accountable to his inhabitants, not to politicians.
” The [Cuomo] wants to hold on because all that matters to Andrew Cuomo is being governor of New York,” Lincoln Mitchell, a political science professor at Columbia University, told AFP.
This post, which his father Mario Cuomo already held from 1983 to 1994, Andrew Cuomo has held since 2011. He was re-elected there in 2014 and 2018 and, so far, he is expected to run again in 2022.
At the head of the state, this former Secretary of Housing for Bill Clinton, who was married to one of Bob Kennedy’s daughters, pushed through several progressive laws, such as same-sex marriage in 2011 and the $15 minimum wage. time.
It was especially at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the spring of 2020, when New York was hit hard by the virus, that Andrew Cuomo acquired national star status. With his daily, rational and reassuring press briefings, this experienced but reputedly rather tough and authoritarian politician had changed his status.
Its record, however, has already been tarnished by a case of underreporting the death toll from COVID-19 in nursing homes.
“Once the President of the United States, who is the leader of the party, says he shouldn’t stay anymore, it becomes very difficult,” adds Lincoln Mitchell, who asks: “Who is going to fight for him? According to the political analyst, Joe Biden may have delivered the coup de grace, freeing all those who feared Mr. Cuomo and dared not turn against him. “Few people appreciated him, and now they feel supported,” he explains.
Beyond the judicial investigations, the governor is also threatened within the State Parliament by a procedure which can lead to his dismissal.
“Once we have received all relevant documents and evidence from the prosecutor, we will act diligently and seek to conclude our impeachment investigation as quickly as possible,” assured the boss of the Lower House, the Democrat Carl Heastie, assuring that Andrew Cuomo could “not stay in office”.
To see in video
–
