Top leaders in Albany remained silent late Saturday as two more women stepped forward to claim Gov. Andrew Cuomo had behaved inappropriately toward them.
State Sen. Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, (D-Westchester), did not immediately back up her stance from days prior, when she said the governor should resign if a fourth accuser emerged.
The number of accusers now stands at five, including four women who had worked for the governor.
“Any further people coming forward, I think it would be time to resign,” Stewart-Cousins said Thursday.
Assemblyman Mike Lawler, (R-Rockland County) was quick to call out the Senate leader.
“@AndreaSCousins we now have five accusers alleging predatory sexual behavior by the highest-ranking elected official in our state – one more than the red line you laid down two days ago. It’s time. The people of NY state deserve nothing less. Call for his resignation,” tweeted Lawler.
A message to Stewart-Cousins was not immediately returned.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, (D-The Bronx) also kept mum in the hours after former Albany aide Ana Liss and Karen Hinton, a former Cuomo aide at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, came forward.
Others were more forthright.
“He’s toast,” Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, (D-Westchester) tweeted of the Governor.
“Cuomo must resign or we must impeach him. The harm and damage and hurt he has caused must end. I plead for my colleagues to have the strength to speak up and have the will to act,” tweeted Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan).
Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim — who was on the receiving end of angry phone calls from the governor after Kim’s criticism of the administrations handling of the nursing home scandal — repeated his own call for impeachment.
“Cuomo’s reign of corruption, his vile abuse of power, his destruction of people’s lives can end if our state legislature has the courage to impeach,” Kim tweeted.
