The White House on Tuesday described the allegations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) as “abhorrent” after the state attorney general detailed an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual harassment.
“I don’t know that anyone could have watched this morning and not found the allegations to have been abhorrent,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “I know I certainly did.”
Psaki stuttered through a statement signaling support for Cuomo’s accusers but stopped short of saying they experienced sexual harassment.
“All women, uh, who have, uh, who have lived through uh, uh, sexual, uh, this type of uh, this type of experience, um, whether it is um, harassment or abuse, or uh in the worse case assault, um, deserve to have their voices heard,” she said.
Joe Biden appears with Andrew Cuomo to unveil plans for new infrastructure projects (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Psaki punted questions about if Biden wanted Cuomo to resign to comments that the president would make himself later in the day.
Biden also refused to answer questions about Cuomo on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters after that he would address questions during his press event on Coronavirus later in the afternoon.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) condemned Cuomo’s actions during her press conference Tuesday morning, saying her office found evidence of multiple incidents of unwanted groping, kisses, hugging, and inappropriate comments.
“We found his denials to lack credibility and to be inconsistent with the weight of the evidence obtained during our investigation,” she said.
The investigation held interviews with 179 people including state troopers and current and former staffers and includes more than 74,000 pieces of evidence.
Cuomo denied the accusations in an online video released by his office Tuesday afternoon.
“The facts are much different than have been portrayed,” says Cuomo, urging people to read his attorney’s response to the attorney general’s report.