Protesting people gather outside Governor Cuomo’s Manhattan office to demand his resignation or face impeachment. Photo taken on March 2, 2021.
New York Democrats appear to have rallied against Governor Cuomo, and on March 11, nearly 60 Democratic state Assembly and Senate lawmakers issued a joint statement calling for Cuomo’s resignation and citing their interest in having Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul take over the governorship. State House Speaker Carl Heastie (D) said that morning that he would convene a meeting to discuss possible action.
On March 11, 2021, VOCAL-NY, a left-leaning advocacy group, rallied outside Speaker Heastie’s Bronx office to call for the Speaker’s impeachment of Cuomo.
The statement was signed by 40 state Assembly members and 19 state senators. The statement cited sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo and the state’s scandalous cover-up of the deaths of nursing Home residents, “he has lost the trust of the public and the State Legislature,” and “clear and trusted leaders are needed at the budget, Epidemic preparedness and economic recovery levels… We have a lieutenant governor to take over for the remainder of his term. This is the most critical Time for New Yorkers. It’s time for Governor Cuomo to resign.”
State Assembly Speaker Heastie said he would meet with lawmakers to discuss possible future actions in light of the allegations about the governor over the past few weeks. Like the role of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Heastie is a key player in whether the impeachment process can move forward.
The State Assembly now consists of 106 Democrats, 43 Republicans and one at-large member, for a total of 150 State Assembly members. Under New York State law’s impeachment rules, in order for the State Assembly to pass a motion of impeachment, more than half of its members must support it, or more than 76 members must vote in favor of it, before it can be sent to the State Senate for a vote, and the State Senate needs a two-thirds majority to convict Cuomo; Democrats currently have an “absolute majority” in the State Senate Democrats have achieved a “super majority” in the state Senate, with two-thirds of the 63 seats, and have the ability to override Governor Cuomo’s veto.
State House Minority Leader William Barclay, a Republican, said in an interview with the English-language Epoch Times on the 11th, “We have more than 30 Democrats who want the governor to resign, and Republicans, and we have almost enough people to pass impeachment.”
A sixth woman has accused Cuomo of sexual harassment in the latest development, the Times Union reported on the 10th. A female director of the state capital unit accused Cuomo of putting her hand directly under her shirt when she was summoned to the governor’s residence (Executive Mansion) for work that year.
The latest details of the accusation came to light, and Mayor Baisley 11 no longer avoided the question of whether Cuomo should resign, saying “I’m deeply troubled by the accusation… Cuomo can no longer serve as governor”; Baisley also mentioned Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, “So many people died in nursing homes, but we don’t know the truth. We don’t know the truth”.
Cuomo still denies the allegations, insisting he never did anything like this, “I am not at liberty to comment on this or any other allegation given the ongoing investigation, but I have full confidence in the findings of the state attorney general.” The governor has declared his cooperation with the investigation, urging outsiders and New Yorkers to reserve judgment until after the results are known.
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