Cuomo should ‘step aside’ if he can no longer govern: NYC mayor

Mayor de Blasio stopped just short of calling on Gov. Cuomo to resign Wednesday, saying that if Cuomo can no longer perform his duties, he should “step aside.”

For the past several days, de Blasio has been attacking Cuomo for his handling of COVID in nursing homes and over accusations that the governor sexually harassed three women.

On Wednesday, his rhetoric wasn’t as harsh as it has been in previous days, but when asked by a reporter if the scandals had rendered Cuomo so ineffective he can no longer do his job, the mayor raised the stakes once more.

“If the governor is to remain in office, he has to govern. He has to answer questions every day,” de Blasio said. “If he can’t govern — though that would be true of any leader, if you’re not in a position to govern for whatever reason, if you’re incapacitated, whatever it is — of course, step aside and let someone else to do it.”

That statement from de Blasio came just a day after Hizzoner demanded Cuomo face the music from the press.

Cuomo made his first public appearance in a week Wednesday — after months of consistently facing reporters on an almost daily basis during the pandemic. Those press conferences — almost all of which focused on the state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic — landed Cuomo an Emmy Award and legions of “Cuomosexual” devotees.

Cuomo said at Wednesday’s briefing that he has no intention of stepping down and is perfectly capable of passing the state budget, even though he’s embroiled in scandal. He also managed to lob a dig back at de Blasio, saying that New York City is in a “very precarious situation” and “teetering.”

“We have to get New York City functional again, and safe again, and viable again and have to do that quickly ... and that work has to start right away, so yes, the budget is important,” he said. “Having said that, I’m going to cooperate with the attorney general and do the budget. Remember, we did a budget last spring in the heat of COVID, where it was the most intense period of my life, of this government’s life, of this state’s life, and we did both, and we’ll do both here.”

Meanwhile, another prominent voice joined the chorus of people calling on Cuomo to resign Wednesday when Maya Wiley, a mayoral candidate and de Blasio’s former legal adviser, said he should step down.

“We have three women, three different women, three women with no relationship with one another ... Each one describing the exact same kind of disgusting and despicable behavior from the governor,” Wiley said in her statement. “I believe in investigations, and as a lawyer who has spent 30 years caring deeply about the rule of law, but equally important about public service and integrity in public office. I call on Gov. Cuomo to resign because this is about an abuse of power — power lent to him by the people to protect and serve us — and women deserve that protection and service as much as anybody else.”

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Long Island) and several Democratic state lawmakers have also called on Cuomo to resign in recent days.

Their outrage is twofold and stems from two equally damaging scandals Cuomo is now mired in.

The first is his handling of COVID and nursing homes.

For months, Cuomo has been taking heat over the thousands of people who died from COVID in nursing homes under his watch, but those criticisms came to a head when a top adviser revealed Cuomo held back on releasing information over fears that President Trump’s administration might use it against him.

When Assemblyman Ron Kim publicly criticized Cuomo for it, the governor allegedly flew into a rage and vowed to “destroy” Kim over the phone.

Then, three women separately came forward with accusations that Cuomo acted inappropriately toward them.

One, Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to the governor, accused him of kissing her against her will in his Manhattan office. The second, Charlotte Bennett, another former aide to Cuomo, said he was “grooming” her for sex and advised her to get a tattoo on her rear end. And a third, Anna Ruch, accused the governor of forcibly kissing her at the wedding of Gareth Rhodes, a top Cuomo adviser, after she physically removed his hand from her lower back.

Cuomo has denied the allegations leveled by Boylan, but has not categorically denied those made by Bennett and Ruch.