New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing pressure to resign due to scandals involving misreported COVID-19 nursing home deaths and five sexual harassment accusations. 

On March 25, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic initially hit New York, Cuomo installed an executive order forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients. Cuomo’s legislative action is now noted to be the cause of many New York COVID-19 deaths. In July 2020, New York State initially reported 6,432 nursing homes and other long term care residents died after testing positive for the coronavirus. This report left out COVID-19 positive nursing home residents who died in the hospital, while skeptics accused the numbers of being a fraction of the actual total. New York State officials now say over 15,000 nursing home residents and other long term care residents died from COVID-19 since last March, with this statistic including nursing home residents who died in hospitals. 

The Cuomo administration’s apparent coverup of the COVID-19 nursing home deaths appears to be due to a federal investigation from the Trump administration. In a Feb. 10 meeting with Democratic state lawmakers this year, Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa said the release of data from the COVID-19 nursing home policy was being delayed due to a Justice Department inquiry from the Trump Administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that aides and close allies to Cuomo manipulated data to make it appear less severe in the initial July report.

As the nursing home scandal was being widely reported, several women came forward to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment. On Feb. 24, Lindsey Boylan became the first of five women to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment. Boylan stated in a piece written for the website Medium that among other things, Cuomo once suggested they play strip poker.Another former staffer, Charolette Bennett, also came out to accuse the Governor of sexual harassment. In an interview with Norah O’Donnell on the CBS Evening News, Bennett shared her story. 

“Without explicitly saying it, he implied to me that I was old enough for him and he was lonely,” Bennett said.

A third woman who came forward, Anna Ruch, accused Cuomo of putting his hands on her lower back and then put his hands on her cheeks while allegedly asking to kiss her, according to Fox News. She also shared photos of the incident, which took place at a wedding in 2019. On March 6, two more women came forward to accuse Cuomo. Karen Hinton alleges Cuomo asked her to come to his “dimly lit” hotel room, according to the Washington Post. Ana Liss told the Wall Street Journal he was flirtatious with her and diminished her to “just a skirt.”

Cuomo has denied all allegations against him and has resisted calls to resign. As recently as March 7, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins called for Cuomo to resign. Cuomo made clear to press on Sunday that he would not resign amid the sexual harassment allegations. 

“I’m not going to resign because of allegations,” Cuomo said. “The premise of resigning because of allegations is actually anti-democratic.”