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State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has yet to meet with Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid his dueling scandals and her calls for his resignation — despite the deadline for the state budget being just two weeks away, she said on Tuesday.
The leading Democratic senator — who last week called on Cuomo to step down over his multiple sexual misconduct allegations — said both chambers are working hard to hammer out the budget ahead of the April 1 deadline, even without the governor’s input.
“I haven’t actually met with the governor,” she said on a call with reporters, “but he hasn’t actually asked me to meet with him.”
Stewart-Cousins, meanwhile, reiterated that she personally told Cuomo to step down amid his spiral of sexual harassment allegations and COVID-19 nursing home death toll coverup.
“I had told the governor before I said what I said why I was saying it,” Stewart-Cousins said, referring to her public statement on March 7 that Cuomo should resign “for the good of the state.”
She doubled down on Tuesday, saying, “I’ve made my opinions clear — I think the governor should resign.”
Asked whether she had enough votes to impeach Cuomo, Stewart-Cousins said she hadn’t “canvassed” her colleagues but added, “I think a majority of my members have come out and suggested that the governor should resign.”
Stewart-Cousins, the first woman and first black woman to lead the Senate, and Cuomo, have a tense history.
She and many Democrats in the state Senate for years have complained that Cuomo helped Republicans maintain control of the upper house by backing a faction of renegade Dems to work with the GOP.
Once, during a private meeting with Cuomo, Stewart-Cousins claimed the governor suggested she wasn’t knowledgeable of suburban residents — even though her district includes Westchester suburbs, as well as the city of Yonkers.
“You look at me, Mr. Governor, but you don’t see me,” she reportedly said. “You see my black skin and a woman, but you don’t realize I am a suburban legislator.”
For the first time, Democrats in both houses of the legislature have enough votes to override Cuomo’s vetoes, including on the budget.
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