Kathleen Rice, a New York congresswoman, became the first Democratic lawmaker from the state to call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation.
Rice, who is serving her fourth consecutive term as the representative of New York’s 4th Congressional District, called for Cuomo to resign Monday after another woman came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct.
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“The time has come. The Governor must resign,” the congresswoman wrote on Twitter, including a link to a New York Times story detailing Anna Ruch’s allegations that the governor made an unwanted sexual advance toward her at a wedding in 2020.
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Ruch, 33, said Cuomo was making the rounds at the wedding when he came up to her and put his hand on her bare lower back. When she removed his hand, she said he called her “aggressive” and put his hands on her cheeks. Ruch said he then asked if he could kiss her, and she pulled away in shock. A friend who said he heard Cuomo make the comment corroborated her story, as did contemporaneous text messages and photographs from the event.
She is the third woman in about a week to come forward to accuse Cuomo of inappropriate advances of a sexual nature.
Lindsey Boylan, who served in the governor’s administration from March 2015 to October 2018, accused Cuomo of kissing her without her consent, inviting her to play strip poker, and of creating a hostile work environment. Days after she came out with the expanded story, Charlotte Bennett, who was a health policy adviser and executive assistant to the governor, also accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior.
Bennett said Cuomo asked her questions that made her feel uncomfortable, such as how she felt about age differences in relationships and remarking that he wouldn’t mind dating a woman in her 20s. She also said she knew the governor “wanted to sleep with me.”
Over the weekend, Cuomo issued an apology to the people who were offended by his behavior.
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“At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny,” Cuomo said. “I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that,” adding that he “never inappropriately touched anybody and [he] never propositioned anybody, and [he] never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”
Cuomo’s office also said Boylan’s “claims of inappropriate behavior” were “quite simply false.”
A number of New York lawmakers called for an investigation into the claims against Cuomo, but Rice is the first to outright call for his resignation.
On Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office received a referral letter to investigate the claims of sexual harassment.
