Republicans in the New York State Assembly on Monday announced an impeachment resolution against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying they believe the Democratic governor has lost “credibility and trust” and has an “inability to lead” the state of New York amid sexual harassment allegations leveled against him and investigations into his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, alongside other Republicans, laid out the plan to introduce an impeachment resolution on Monday.
We’re going to introduce this resolution because we believe the time has come,” Barclay said. “In order to lead this great state as governor, you need to have credibility and trust … and unfortunately, we feel the governor has lost that and now has an inability to lead.”
“I don’t think I’ve used the term ‘bombshell’ especially this week, any time more in my life, it has been one bombshell after another,” Barclay added, laying out the issues plaguing the Cuomo administration.
Cuomo is facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment and a federal probe into his administration’s tally on COVID-19 deaths tied to nursing homes.
“We had the AG report come out saying that the governor was underreporting nursing home deaths by as much as 50%,” Barclay said. “We had that secret political meeting where he had his top aides say they weren’t reporting the nursing home deaths because they were worried about a Department of Justice investigation—they were worried about the political fallout.”
He continued, adding that there was “the bullying and the harassing of sitting members of the state legislature.”
“Then we had five courageous women come forward to talk about their abuse, sexual harassment, and other abuse at the hands of the governor,” Barclay said.
Barclay added that over the weekend, “30 members of the assembly majority” said the governor “ought to resign.”
“As you heard the governor say yesterday, I’m not going to resign, if you want to get rid of me, start impeachment,” Barclay recalled Cuomo saying. “But we think now is the time to act. We think it’s time to commence impeachment.”
Barclay acknowledged that Republicans “won’t be able to force a vote,” but said they would “keep pounding on this issue.”
“We hope that the political pressure keeps getting greater and greater,” Barclay said. “We’re hoping by doing this, we’re going to keep reminding the majorities that it’s time for them to act.”
He added: “If they really believe in resignation, why not start the impeachment process?”
Cuomo is also facing calls to step down from Democrats.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, said in a statement that the allegations are “drawing away from the business of government.”
“New York is still in the midst of the pandemic and is still facing the societal, health and economic impacts of it [the virus],” she said. “We need to govern without daily distraction. For the good of the state Governor Cuomo must resign.”
The Associated Press, citing an unnamed source, reported that Cuomo had a brief phone conversation with Stewart-Cousins and told her that he would not quit and that if they want him out of office, they would need to impeach him.
To impeach the sitting governor, the Assembly needs a majority vote in the 150-member body, and the state Senate—where there would be a conviction—would need a two-thirds majority of court members that would consist of both senators and judges from the state’s court of appeals.
As for the nursing home investigations, Republicans in the House of Representatives want to subpoena Cuomo to testify before Congress, as the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn are believed to have begun an investigation into how the Cuomo administration handled the state’s nursing home crisis during the pandemic.
The Office of the Attorney General asked 62 nursing homes to provide data about deaths in their facilities.
Cuomo has denied some of the allegations against him and his office has denied altering the count of nursing home deaths.
The governor also stressed that he “never touched anyone inappropriately.” When asked about the photograph of him gripping the face of Anna Ruch, who accused him of grabbing her face and kissing her cheek without permission, Cuomo claimed that it is a “customary” way for him to greet people.
This is an excerpt from Fox News.
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