The rise and fall of New York governor Andrew Cuomo

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned from office after an inquiry found that he sexually harassed 11 women while in office.

Plans to impeach the governor were already in motion when he announced his resignation during a live address yesterday. The three-term governor thanked “the women who came forward with sincere complaints”, but added that the controversy was “unfair and untruthful”.

“This is about politics. Loudness has replaced soundness. Twitter has become the public square for policy debate,” Cuomo said. “You know me. I’m New York born and bred. I’m a fighter and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because I really believe it is politically motivated.”

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There had been growing calls from Democrats, including Joe Biden, for Cuomo to resign. The president last week encouraged him to step down following the publication of an inquiry into the allegations.

The governor finally resigned while claiming that impeachment investigation would be a huge distraction that could “consume” the government in a time of crisis, as well as “brutalising” people and costing taxpayers “millions of dollars”.

The decision to hand the reins to Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, making her the city’s first female governer, marks a fall from grace for Cuomo. Just a year ago he was “basking in adulation” as millions of concerned Americans “tuned in daily to his no-nonsense televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic”, the BBC says.

‘Pandemic political star’

The resignation marks the end of an “epic political career” that had “soared” over the past year as New York faced up to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Financial Times (FT) reports.

A third-term governor in his own right, Cuomo also served in Bill Clinton’s cabinet and rose to the governorship in the footsteps of his father, “Democratic powerhouse” Mario Cuomo, The Guardian says.

He truly became a “pandemic political star” in 2020 through a series of television briefings where he gave “plain assessments of the grave situation and the need for more resources for hospitals to combat Covid-19”, the paper adds.

His “popularity soared with the public to the point where the hashtag #PresidentCuomo trended on Twitter”, ABC reports, while commentators “speculated he might be named as Joe Biden’s running mate in the presidential election”. The governor was even awarded an Emmy “for the way he turned a crisis into a moment of engaging, feel-good television”.

However, his reputation for diligently handling the pandemic faltered when his administration was accused of going to great lengths to “obscure the death toll” of Covid-19 deaths in care homes earlier this year, says The New York Times.

‘Deeply disturbing picture’

Cuomo resigned one week after the state attorney-general released the findings of a five-month investigation into claims he had sexually harassed 11 women. Investigators found his accusers “credible”, The Times says, concluding that he had harassed the women – many of whom worked for him – and that his administration had “sought to retaliate against one of them by releasing personnel files”.

At a news conference last week, New York attorney-general Letitia James, who led the investigation, said: “These interviews and pieces of evidence revealed a deeply disturbing yet clear picture; governor Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees in violation of federal and state laws.”

Some of the most serious allegations against the disgraced politician include claims he groped his former aide Brittany Commisso’s breast, while another aide, Lindsey Boylan, said Cuomo forcibly kissed her and “would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs”.

Cuomo “initially stood defiant” against the allegations, insisting he would fight the governor’s race for the fourth time in November next year, The Guardian says. But it seems “the attorney general’s report and the snapping of presidential patience were the straws that broke the camel’s back”, The Times adds.

During his resignation speech, Cuomo again denied the allegations, insisting “his greatest mistake had been failing to grasp how behavioural norms had changed over the years”, the FT says.

“In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone. But I didn’t realise the extent to which the line has been redrawn,” said Cuomo. “There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate – and I should have.”

He also suggested that his background was being used against him in the sexual harassment row, alluding to the fact that “the allegations were a result in part of a touchy-feely Italian heritage that included kissing on the cheeks and outward displays of affections”, Deadline reports.

As of yesterday it was unclear if impeachment proceedings against him would go ahead – with lawmakers wondering if there was “any reason to go forward with the inquiry” now that he has stepped down, the NYT says. An impeachment conviction would bar him from running for public office in New York in the future.

While that may seem like an unlikely step, the “always plotting Cuomo might not be finished yet”, suggests Russell Berman in The Atlantic.

“There are already murmurs that he could try for a comeback by running again in 2022 and asking voters, as opposed to state legislators, to render a final verdict.”