Andrew Cuomo must 'do the right thing' and resign

In New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s third inaugural address, delivered in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island, the governor declared, “When they write the history books, and they ask us, 'Well, what did you do in the face of anger and division? What did you do when people were disillusioned?' Let New York's answer be that in that defining moment we brought healing and light and hope and progress and action.”

In the wake of today’s damning 165-page report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Cuomo has the ability to bring that “healing and light and hope” that he promised in his address, by resigning his office. In response to the attorney general’s report, the governor’s defiance in his recorded speech today, doubling down on the idea that the 11 women who have come forward are either lying or misremembering interactions, only further proves that Cuomo is unfit to serve one more day in public life.

The report itself paints a horrifying picture of an elected official, unbounded by any kind of societal norms or expectations and, in the report’s own words, “enabled” by some of the people he appointed and surrounded himself with in the governor’s office. Fortunately for New Yorkers, though, we live in a democratic republic where voters decide who represents them, and despite Cuomo’s three gubernatorial election successes, he is not the king of New York nor the emperor of Albany, serving indefinitely.