Kamala Harris ignores question on Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment claims despite growing calls to condemn him
While speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris chose to ignore a question about the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The first female VP of the United States was talking to the press about the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed by both the House and the Senate in a party-line vote. However, a reporter asked Harris for her views on the allegations against Cuomo as the event concluded.
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"Madame Vice President, do you have any comment on Gov. Cuomo?" the reporter asked, but Harris chose to walk out of the briefing room without addressing the question.
Cuomo is facing increasing pressure to resign from office after several women came forward in recent days and accused the governor of sexual harassment and misconduct. On March 10, the Albany Times-Union reported how a female former aide had alleged the governor groped her during an encounter at the governor's mansion last year.
Harris is facing growing calls to condemn Cuomo, especially after the hardline stance she took against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and former Democratic Sen. Al Franken when they were accused of sexual misconduct.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James has launched a probe into said allegations against the New York governor, who has denied any wrongdoing and declared he will not resign from office.
"As I said yesterday, I have never done anything like this," Cuomo said in response to the Times-Union’s report. "The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the Attorney General’s report."
That said, this is not the first time VP Harris' silence on the subject of Cuomo's alleged predatory behavior has come up. Earlier this month, Press Sec. Psaki appeared to dodge questions about why Harris had remained silent on the sexual harassment allegations brought on by multiple women against the New York governor despite the fact that when she was a California senator, she had ripped Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh apart due to similar accusations when his nomination was being considered.
“Vice President Kamala Harris was one of the most vocal critics of justice Brett Kavanaugh, of Senator Al Franken, when they faced similar allegations. She said repeatedly, ‘I believe them, the women,’ but she hasn’t said anything about the three women who are accusing Governor Andrew Cuomo,” Fox News reporter Kristin Fisher asked Psaki during a press briefing on March 2. “And now this third accuser in Anna Ruch, she actually worked for the Biden-Harris campaign. So at what point is the first female vice president going to say something about this?”
In response, Psaki said, “Well, I know that’s how the vice president continues to feel and the benefit of doing a briefing every day is that I can certainly speak on behalf of the president and the vice president. And so let me reiterate that they both believe that every woman coming forward should be heard, should be treated with dignity, and treated with respect. As you all know, the New York Attorney General will oversee an independent investigation with subpoena power and the governor’s office said he will fully cooperate and we certainly support that moving forward.”