Disgraced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned Tuesday, saying it was “the right thing” to avoid a costly and distracting impeachment trial over sexual harassment allegations.
“Given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is If I step aside and let government get back to governing,” Mr. Cuomo said in a televised address.
He said his resignation will become effective in 14 days. Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will succeed Mr. Cuomo, becoming the state’s first female governor.
Mr. Cuomo forcefully denied the harassment allegations against him, but said the political environment in Albany was “too hot and too reactionary” for him to go on.
“I am a fighter, and my instinct is to fight through this controversy, because I truly believe it is politically motivated,” the three-term governor said. “If I could communicate the facts through the frenzy, New Yorkers would understand. But … it is your best interests that I must serve.”
He said an impeachment trial would “generate months of political and legal controversy.”
“It will consume government. It will brutalize people. It will cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” he said. “Wasting energy on distractions is the last thing that state government should be doing. I cannot be the cause of that. I love New York, and I love you.”
His stunning resignation came just over a week after state Attorney General Letitia James released a report concluding that Mr. Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, some of whom had worked for him. Since then, Mr. Cuomo and his team had dug in and fought back against the report that they called inaccurate and politically motivated.
Democratic leaders of the state Assembly said Monday they would pick up the pace of their impeachment investigation, aiming to vote on it next month.
Further, Mr. Cuomo‘s inner circle and his political support were crumbling. Top aide Melissa DeRosa quit on Sunday, labor unions had abandoned him, and a significant majority of legislators in the Assembly said they would vote to impeach him.
Ms. Hochul, 62, called the governor’s resignation “the right thing to do and in the best interest of New Yorkers.”
“As someone who has served at all levels of government and is next in the line of succession, I am prepared to lead as New York state’s 57th governor,” she said in a statement.
President Biden was one of many Democrats who had called on Mr. Cuomo to resign. The White House said Tuesday the focus should be on the women who confronted the governor.
“Our view is that this is a story about these courageous women who came forward, told their stories, shared their stories and the investigation by the attorney general, that, of course, concluded today in an outcome that the president called for just last week,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, called Mr. Cuomo‘s resignation “long past overdue.” She said Mr. Cuomo should be arrested and prosecuted for sexual assault, and she called on Ms. Hochul to “clean house” in an administration stocked with Cuomo appointees.
“The systemic culture of criminal corruption, political vengeance and illegal retaliation under Andrew Cuomo was brushed under the rug for years by Democrats, the media and the cesspool of Albany,” Ms. Stefanik said. “It is a disgraceful chapter in New York’s history.”
The sexual harassment scandal sealed Mr. Cuomo‘s fate, but he is also facing investigations into the discovery that his administration had concealed thousands of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home patients. There is a separate probe on his use of state employees to help him write a book last year for which he was paid $5.1 million.
Even as he quit, the 63-year-old Mr. Cuomo insisted that he hadn’t sexually harassed or assaulted anyone.
“The report said I sexually harassed 11 women. The reaction was outrage. It should have been,” he said. “However, it was also false. The most serious allegations made against me had no credible factual basis in the report. This is not to say there are not 11 women who I truly offended. There are. For that, I deeply, deeply apologize.”
He blamed “generational and cultural shifts” for women taking his gestures the wrong way.
“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I have been too familiar with people. I do hug and kiss people casually, women and men. I have done it all my life. In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone. But I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.”
He apologized in particular to a female state trooper on his protective detail who said he touched her inappropriately and made suggestive remarks.
“If she said I did it, I believe her,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I just wasn’t thinking. But it was also insensitive. It was disrespectful to her. I want to personally apologize to her and her family. I have the greatest respect for her.”
A Quinnipiac University poll found last week that 70% of New York voters believed Mr. Cuomo should resign, including 88% of Republicans and 57% of Democrats. His job-approval rating was 28%, lowest ever since the three-term governor took office in 2011.
Some observers of New York politics believe Mr. Cuomo was clinging to power due to the memory of his late father, Gov. Mario Cuomo, who lost his bid for a fourth term in 1994 to Republican George Pataki in an upset. Andrew Cuomo has been aiming to win a fourth term in 2022.
“The father-son thing is very powerful,” said Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University. “The father couldn’t get a fourth term, and that was one of the things that was on Andrew Cuomo‘s ‘to-do’ list.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Democrat, said Ms. Hochul “will be an extraordinary governor.”
“She understands the complexities and needs of our state, having been a congresswoman, and having been lieutenant governor for the last several years,” Ms. Gillibrand told reporters. “I look forward to supporting her and helping her as she turns towards governing our state in a very difficult and challenging time.”
• Jeff Mordock contributed to this story.
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