Cuomo, out of view, faces loss of emergency powers.
ALBANY, N.Y. » New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has avoided public appearances for days as some members of his own party call for him to resign over sexual harassment allegations, and as state lawmakers move toward stripping him of the emergency powers he was granted early in the coronavirus pandemic.
The governor hasn’t taken questions from reporters since a Feb. 19 briefing, an unusually long gap for a Democrat whose daily, televised updates on the coronavirus pandemic were must-see TV last spring.
He last was before cameras on Thursday, when he introduced President Joe Biden at a virtual meeting of the National Governor’s Association, which he chairs. He participated Tuesday in the group’s conference call, but it was off limits to reporters.
The public absence was more glaring after legislative leaders announced Tuesday that they were moving to limit the governor’s broad powers to unilaterally set state policy during the pandemic.
Under the bill — largely a response to Cuomo’s COVID-related policies for nursing homes and his delay in providing a full accounting of nursing home deaths related to the illness — the governor still would have the power to keep alive his existing COVID rules or tweak them. But he no longer would be allowed to make decisions without any input from the Legislature.
He’d have to notify legislative committees and local governments and respond to their questions in certain circumstances.
The leaders of the state Assembly and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, hope to vote on the matter as early as Friday.
Neither Cuomo nor his spokespeople have commented on the latest sexual misconduct allegation against him, made public Monday night. A woman told The New York Times that Cuomo touched her lower back, then grabbed her cheeks and asked to kiss her at a September 2019 wedding.
Most leading Democrats have signaled they want to withhold judgment about Cuomo allegedly sexually harassing at least three until an independent investigation is complete.
State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs, a close Cuomo ally, said it’s “premature” to opine before the investigation concludes.
Several members of the National Governors Association said they support the investigation, but didn’t say whether they think he
should resign as chairman of the body. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the association’s vice chair, called the allegations against Cuomo “very serious” but said it’s up to Democratic governors to decide who will lead the NGA.
“I’m glad there’s an independent investigation that’s ongoing, and I think we should all wait until the results of that independent investigation and see where that conclusion leads everyone,” the Republican governor told reporters.
That inquiry has yet to begin. New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office is working to hire an outside law firm to conduct it.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said New York’s congressional delegation in Washington has not met on the issue but “everyone is monitoring the situation closely.”
“Well these are very serious allegations and they require a very serious investigation,” Jeffries told reporters Tuesday. “I’m confident that Attorney General Tish James will get to the bottom of everything, release a report that’s fully transparent and then we can decide the best way to proceed thereafter.”
One former Cuomo aide, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said Cuomo quizzed her about her sex life and asked whether she would be open
to a relationship with an older man. Bennett on Monday rejected Cuomo’s attempted apology, in which he said he’d been trying to be “playful” and that his jokes had been misinterpreted as flirting.
Another former aide, Lindsey Boylan, said Cuomo commented on her appearance inappropriately, kissed her without her consent at the end of a meeting, and once suggested they play strip poker while aboard his state-owned jet. Cuomo has denied Boylan’s allegations.
The woman who spoke to The New York Times about Cuomo’s conduct at the wedding, Anna Ruch, hasn’t responded to request for comment from The Associated Press.
Ruch told the newspaper that when she removed Cuomo’s hand from her back, he called her “aggressive,” placed his hands on her cheeks and asked if he could kiss her. Cuomo then planted a kiss on her cheek as she turned away, she said.
A photograph taken by a friend captured a look of discomfort on Ruch’s face as the governor held her face.
“I felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed when really he is the one who should have been embarrassed,” Ruch told the Times.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has had a contentious relationship with Cuomo for years, said Tuesday that if all the allegations against Cuomo are true, “he cannot govern.”
“He would not be able to govern, it’s as simple as that,” the Democrat said.