New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Resigns Amidst Wave Of Sexual Harassment Allegations

Embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned, effective in two weeks, in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal.

In a statement at a press conference this afternoon, he announced he would be "stepping aside" because he does not want to be "unhelpful in any way." He also called the impeachment investigation into him "unfair" and "politically motivated."

"I'm a New Yorker, born and bred. I'm a fighter and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because I truly believe it is politically motivated, I believe it is unfair and it is untruthful and I believe it demonizes behavior that is unsustainable for society," he said at a press conference this afternoon.

"New York tough means New York loving, and I love New York, and I love you. I would never want to be unhelpful in any way."

"The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing. And therefore, that's what I'll do," New York Gov. Cuomo says. pic.twitter.com/Z1edfCJa3z

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 10, 2021

Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James released the results of an investigation into multiple sexual harassment complaints against Cuomo, concluding that the governor did indeed sexually harass multiple women, "engaging in unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging, and making inappropriate comments." The report also concluded that Cuomo and his staffers had attempted to intimidate the accusers into silence.

After the report's release, multiple high-ranking Democrats, including President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and much of New York's Democrat-led State Assembly called for the governor's resignation. It was believed that if Cuomo had not resigned, impeachment was almost a certainty.

The move was not altogether unexpected considering the pressure Cuomo faced, but those who had followed his career were still surprised to see him voluntarily step aside from office.

If you have covered Cuomo even for a short time, it is stunning that he’s stepping down instead of fighting something out. He’s going down claiming innocence but he is not going down fighting.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 10, 2021

Honestly, I never thought he’d resign

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) August 10, 2021

Still in disbelief. For sure thought Cuomo would go down FIGHTING… especially after 2020.

Yeah, he got NY through that 1st pandemic wave last summer but I honestly just saw that as him setting up his eventual run for the White House… it just so happened to work out for us. 🤷🏾‍♂️

— Eric M. Black (@eb4prez) August 10, 2021

It is a tremendous fall from grace for Cuomo, who was widely regarded as a possible future Democratic Presidential candidate and was briefly a pandemic-era celebrity for his daily briefings in the early days of the pandemic, though that too was later marred with reports that he had attempted to obscure the toll of death counts from New York State nursing homes due to COVID-19 after mandating that nursing homes take back residents who had "recovered" from the virus.

Current New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will step in as governor following Cuomo's resignation.