Republican New York City mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa and Democrat lawmakers appeared outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Manhattan office Wednesday and demanded the state's top executive resign.
An investigation directed by the New York state attorney general determined the Democrat governor sexually harassed multiple current and former state government employees.
Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels crime prevention group, condemned Cuomo's "pervy ways," the New York Daily News reported.
"His response was abominable," Sliwa said outside Cuomo’s office. "He said directly, explicitly that this was inherited behavior, part of his DNA as an Italian-American — touchy, kissing, feely — all of those things attributed to him he said were cultural in nature and was learned behavior from his father, Mario, and his mother, Matilda.
"He has sinned against Italian-American peoples by suggesting that all of us hug, kiss, squeeze, perv, grope. That is specious. He, above all people, should apologize to Italian-Americans."
Sliwa marched into the office building to deliver a written resignation demand. Unable to access the governor’s office, he left the letter on the lobby floor.
"It is no secret that your ego is bigger than New York State itself," Sliwa’s letter said. "You must resign immediately."
Democrat New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams took a forceful tone when saying the governor should leave office.
"Resign!" Williams said, with an expletive, to cheers. "Please don't put us through this anymore. Haven't you done enough to the people of New York State? Haven’t you harmed and hurt enough people? Do not do this any longer. Please. Resign. Get out."
Several Democrats among the crowd could preside over the governor's possible impeachment trial.
The Daily News reported that the lawmakers are concerned the Cuomo scandal will delay billions of dollars in rent relief from reaching pandemic-affected tenants.
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a longtime Cuomo ally, said Tuesday evening it was "abundantly clear that the governor has lost the confidence of the Assembly Democratic majority and that he can no longer remain in office."
"Once we receive all relevant documents and evidence from the attorney general, we will move expeditiously and look to conclude our impeachment investigation as quickly as possible," Heastie said, the Daily News reported.
Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, D-Manhattan, said she has drafted language for articles of impeachment that are "ready to go."
"I would really like to see articles [of] impeachment in front of us that we can read, that we are then given a time and date to come back as a Legislature," Niou said, the Daily News reported. "Every single day that we are not impeaching, that’s another day that his staff — the people who are working around him, the women who have been harmed already — are going to continue to be harmed."
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