AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
- President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign.
- "I'm sure there were some embraces that were totally innocent," Biden said.
- "But apparently the attorney general decided there were things that weren't," he added.
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President Joe Biden on Tuesday joined a slew of congressional Democrats and Republicans in calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign.
"Yes," Biden said when asked by CNN's Kaitlan Collins if Cuomo should step down in light of the investigation released earlier on Tuesday by New York State Attorney General Letitia James' office, which found that the governor sexually harassed 11 women.
The president stopped short of weighing in on a possible impeachment for Cuomo, saying: "Let's take one thing at a time here, I think he should resign."
Biden added that he hasn't spoken with Cuomo nor has he read the 165-page report, but he knows the "end result."
"Look, I'm not gonna flyspeck this. I'm sure there were some embraces that were totally innocent," Biden continued. "But apparently the attorney general decided there were things that weren't."
Biden in February publicly supported an independent review of the sexual harassment claims leveled against Cuomo. In March, Biden said that Cuomo should resign if an investigation found the allegations to be true. The president also said Cuomo would "probably end up being prosecuted."
"If the investigation of the attorney general concluded that the allegations were correct ... I would recommend he resign," Biden said on Tuesday. "That's what I'm doing today."
Several top lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also called for Cuomo to resign in the wake of the damning investigation on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with every other Congress member representing New York, also voiced support for Cuomo's resignation.
The independent investigators found that Cuomo "sexually harassed a number of current and former New York State employees by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women," according to the report.
Cuomo, for his part, denied the report's conclusions.
"The facts are much different than what has been portrayed," he said. "I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances. That is just not who I am and that is not who I have ever been."
