The former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from sexual harassment, seeks to return to politics as mayor of New York City, reiterating his innocence.
Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday that he will apply for mayor of New York City, more than three years after he resigned in disgrace as Governor of the State after being accused of sexually harassing several women who worked for him and deceiving the public about deaths by COVID-19.
Cuomo, 67, denies accusations. He is one of the best known candidates that challenges the troubled mayor Eric Adams to become the candidate of the Democratic Party in the June elections.
“I know what needs to be done and I know how to do it,” Cuomo said in a video message, saying that the city needs a bold plan to address crime, mental illnesses and other concerns, and asking for a permanent increase in the number of police officers and the construction of thousands of affordable homes.
Adams is looking for a second term despite the fact that high -ranking Democrats ask him to resign after last year he was accused of corruption and then courted the US President Donald Trump, a Republican, while seeking to dismiss the accusation. Adams, 64, declared himself innocent.
Cuomo entered politics in the 1980s helping his father, Mario Cuomo, to win three mandates as governor of New York, a position he won in 2010. He also served in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton as Secretary of Housing of the United States and, before becoming a governor, he fulfilled a mandate as a general prosecutor of New York.
As governor, Cuomo signed bills that legalized same -sex marriage and recreational marijuana, and in New York City supervised an expansion of the Pennsylvania station and a remodeling of the Laguardia airport.
He was known for issuing daily public reports during the Covid pandemic principle, which killed thousands of New Yorkers, but his response to the crisis became the beginning of his political fall.
In an audit, the Comptroller of the State of New York discovered that the administration of Cuomo had pressed to the Department of Health to deliberately underestimate the covid deaths of the state's elderly residents of the State.
Cuomo had signed a 5.1 million dollar contract for a book on his leadership during the pandemic, but the State Ethics Board revoked its approval after saying that Cuomo incorrectly used employees and state resources to write it. Cuomo has said that he did nothing or not very ethical, and has sued the Board of Ethics, which has demanded the 5.1 million dollars, in a dispute that continues.
In August 2021, Cuomo resigned a week after the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, published the results of an investigation that concluded that Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women.
He said he had not done anything wrong, but he apologized to all the people who made him feel uncomfortable with what he described as clumsy attempts to be affectionate or funny.