Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that the latest allegations of sexual harassment brought against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are “nauseating,” but he stopped short of calling for the Democrat governor to resign or be impeached.
“The allegations brought forward against Cuomo are serious, so troubling, and should be looked at,” the New York Democrat said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The most recent one is nauseating. I’ve always felt that sexual harassment is not tolerable. We cannot tolerate it. You cannot accept it.”
But, he said he has faith that state Attorney General Letitia James will conduct a complete investigation into the allegations.
“Early on I called for a thorough, complete investigation,” said Schumer. “It’s now being undertaken by Tish James. She’s an independent, strong, intelligent woman, and she has full subpoena power for documents and individuals. She will turn over every stone. She’ll get to the bottom of this. I know her, I’ve known her a long time. I believe she’ll resist any outside interference, political or otherwise. I have a lot of faith in her.”
His comments come as 12 House Democrats from New York on Friday called for the Democrat governor to step down. Those lawmakers include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman, Antonio Delgado, Mondaire Jones, Carolyn Maloney, Grace Meng, Yvette Clark, Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velasquez, Brian Higgins, and Sean Maloney. They joined Rep. Kathleen Rice, who called for the governor to resign on March 1.
Cuomo is facing allegations from six women who say he either harassed or groped them.
Schumer also on Friday discussed President Joe Biden’s first primetime address, calling it a “great speech.”
“The number one question I get is how, when can I get the vaccine,” said the senator. “Joe Biden will rely on the science. He won’t oversell it.”
He added that he liked that there was “no swagger” with Biden’s speech, but instead there was empathy.
“He certainly empathizes, sympathizes with Americans, many Americans who have suffered similar tragedies because of COVID,” said Schumer. “He talked about what people wanted to hear. It didn’t swagger, boast, or exaggerate, and it showed real sympathy. He hit it out of the park. Let me tell you, I think lots of Republicans watching that speech will say, gee whiz, this guy is better than I thought he was.”
The bill, though, didn’t get any Republican votes, and Schumer said the Democrat caucus would like that to change, but the party will not step back when that cooperation doesn’t come.
“I’ve said this repeatedly over and over again, we cannot make the mistakes of 2009 and 2010,” said Schumer. “We cannot underperform. They did in 2009 and 2010, and unemployment lagged for a very long time. It took a long time to get the economy moving again. So big, bold action is our watchword. If we prefer to work with Republicans, we want to, we’ll reach out. Where we can work with them, we will. We will not be deterred from big, bold action when we can’t work with them.”
Source: Newmax
