At the height of the pandemic, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared on television daily and confidently outlined New York’s path through the public health crisis, Lee Fitzgerald watched with admiration.
But on Tuesday, after the state attorney general’s office released a report that found Cuomo had sexually harassed several women, Fitzgerald, who said she had voted for Cuomo in 2018, said it was time for him to resign.
“I’ve had enough,” said Fitzgerald, 31, an Albany resident. “I want him out of there.”
Outraged and dismayed, New Yorkers across the state Tuesday grappled with the fallout from the much-anticipated report. Some, like Fitzgerald, called on the governor to resign; others said he should remain in office or be given a chance to defend himself.
The reactions, particularly among Democratic voters, underscored just how far Cuomo’s standing has fallen since last year, when some viewed him as a potential presidential candidate based on his management of the state’s response to the pandemic.
Now, Cuomo is facing calls to resign from four of the region’s governors, both of New York’s senators and President Joe Biden, even as he considers a bid for a fourth term next year. Possible challengers had already begun exploring whether to run against him, after some allegations were made public earlier this year.
On Wednesday, several state lawmakers joined a rally outside of Cuomo’s offices in Midtown Manhattan and called for his resignation or impeachment and removal from office. In Albany, a small plane commissioned by the women’s group UltraViolet flew past the State Capitol, pulling a banner that read, “The report is in. Remove Cuomo now.”
The 165-page report, which was released by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, said that Cuomo violated state and federal law and repeatedly made inappropriate comments and engaged in unwanted touching. It said his aides cultivated a toxic work culture that was rife with fear and intimidation, and helped enable “harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment.”
Cuomo on Tuesday, facing mounting calls to resign, appeared to be defiant, challenging the report’s conclusions and saying he did not behave inappropriately. A lawyer for Cuomo released a detailed response to the report, calling it “unfair” and “inaccurate.”
But many voters interviewed Tuesday were already digesting the investigation’s findings, and trying to reconcile the image of the man who led the state’s pandemic response with the report’s description of repeated sexual harassment, often of women working under Cuomo in state government.
“What I call unfortunate is that those were the same person,” said Sarthak Sharma, 33, who read about the news on his phone at a cafe in the Chelsea area of Manhattan on Tuesday.
Ana Giron, 29, who works as a server at the Rye House in Port Chester, New York, said she had watched the governor’s regular televised updates on the pandemic last year, and had a good impression of Cuomo. She said when she first heard about the sexual misconduct allegations, she did not want to believe it.
Rob Lombardi, co-owner of the restaurant, said that he would have voted for Cuomo in 2022, but not anymore.
“How could I?” he said. “I’ve got a daughter.”
Lombardi said he had not heard all the details of the attorney general’s report yet. But he said if the findings about Cuomo were true, “he should step down, shouldn’t he?”
Alanya Zuniga, a high school English teacher who lives in Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo, said she thought Cuomo should resign.
“I am very disappointed,” she said. “I was really trying not to prejudge the situation. I really tried to wait and see what happened, because I do feel like he has done so much for New York state in terms of COVID. I was willing to give him more of the benefit of the doubt than I normally would with a public figure called out on his or her behavior.”
For some New Yorkers, the report’s findings intersected with other problems they had with Cuomo.
“I’ve found him to be a bully, kind of like Trump, a real caustic character,” said Frank Byrne, who described himself as more progressive than the governor.
When the allegations against Cuomo first came out earlier this year, Byrne, a history professor at SUNY Oswego, said he found them “entirely believable.” Still, when Byrne began reading the attorney general’s report Tuesday at his home in Baldwinsville, a village northwest of Syracuse, he was surprised to discover the severity of the findings.
He said he did not think Cuomo would resign.
“For him, it’s just ego and power,” he said.
Some New Yorkers, however, offered a more mixed reaction.
Liz King, 40, of Queens, said she had discussed the report with three colleagues in a break room at a hospital in New York City where they work. She said while they believed some of the report’s findings that Cuomo had verbally harassed women, they questioned whether Cuomo had groped anyone, even though investigators had corroborated the woman’s account.
King said that she and her colleagues were glad that the women shared their stories with investigators. But she said they do not think Cuomo should resign and should be given more of a chance to defend himself.
“He should have his fair say in court,” she said.
In Chelsea, Brenna Fromayan, 25, said she thought Cuomo had managed the pandemic well, but called the behavior outlined in the attorney general’s report “inexcusable,” particularly the finding that he retaliated against one woman for coming forward.
“It would make sense if he resigned,” Fromayan said, but she still had reservations.
“Whether it’s the best thing, I’m unsure,” she said.
Chrissie Hsu, 36, said in an interview at Union Square that while she believed the report’s findings, she did not think they were “severe enough for impeachment.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .