New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigns amid sexual harassment allegations

10 August 2021, 17:15 | Updated: 10 August 2021, 22:07

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned following a raft of sexual harassment allegations.

Mr Cuomo, who was in his third term, announced his resignation as a bid to remove him by impeachment grew momentum.

The 63-year-old said on Tuesday: "The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing."

It comes after New York’s attorney general released the results of an investigation that found Mr Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women.

READ MORE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, report finds

Investigators said he subjected women to unwanted kisses, groping or touching inappropriately, made insinuating remarks about their looks and their sex lives, and created a work environment "rife with fear and intimidation".

He still faces the possibility of criminal charges, with a number of prosecutors around the state moving to investigate him.

His resignation goes into effect in 14 days.

Kathy Hochul, a 62-year-old Democrat and former member of Congress from the Buffalo area, will become the state's 57th governor and the first woman to hold the post.

A year ago Mr Cuomo was widely hailed for his detailed daily briefings and leadership during the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the string of accusations began to unfold in news reports in December and went on for months.

He called some of them fabricated, strongly denying he touched anyone inappropriately, but he acknowledged making some aides uncomfortable with comments he said he intended as playful, and apologised for some of his behaviour.

He portrayed some of the encounters as misunderstandings attributable to "generational or cultural" differences, a reference in part to his upbringing in an affectionate Italian-American family.

As he clung to office, state legislators launched an impeachment investigation, and nearly the entire Democratic establishment in New York deserted him - not only over the accusations, but also because of the discovery that his administration had concealed thousands of Covid-19 deaths among nursing home patients.

The harassment investigation ordered by New York attorney general Letitia James corroborated the women's accounts and added new ones.

Simon Marks provides latest on Andrew Cuomo

The release of the report left Mr Cuomo more isolated than ever, with some of his most loyal supporters abandoning him and President Joe Biden joining calls for this resignation.

His accusers included an aide who said he groped her breast at his mansion. Investigators also found his staff retaliated against one of his accusers by leaking confidential personnel files about her.

Mr Cuomo, whose father Mario was governor in the 1980s and 90s, touted himself as an example of a "progressive Democrat" who got things done.

He was often mentioned as a potential candidate for president, an office his father famously contemplated seeking, and was planning to run for re-election next year.

Since taking office in 2011, he helped push through legislation that legalised gay marriage, began lifting the minimum wage to 15 dollars and expanded paid family leave benefits.

He also backed big infrastructure projects, including airport overhauls and construction of a new bridge over the Hudson River that he named after his father.

He publicly championed the MeToo movement and surrounded himself with women's rights activists, signing into law sweeping new protections against sexual harassment and lengthening the statute of limitations in rape cases.

His national popularity soared during the spring of 2020, when New York became the epicentre of the nation's coronavirus outbreak.

His tough but empathetic response made for riveting television well beyond New York, and his warnings to people to stay home and wear masks stood in sharp contrast to Donald Trump's attitude.

His briefings won an international Emmy Award, and he went on to write a book on leadership in a crisis.

But those accomplishments were tainted when it was learned that the state's official count of nursing home deaths had excluded many patients who had been transferred to hospitals before they succumbed.

A Cuomo aide said the administration feared the true numbers would be "used against us" by the Trump White House.