President Biden on Tuesday gave a stunning appraisal of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s performance, saying that he did “a hell of a job” immediately following his resignation for sexual harassment.
Biden lauded Cuomo despite the fact that he’s under investigation by at least four New York district attorneys for assault and under federal investigation for an admitted coverup of COVID-19 deaths at New York nursing homes.
“Well, he’s done a hell of a job. He’s done a hell of a job. And I mean, both on — everything from access to voting to infrastructure to a whole range of things. That’s why it’s so sad,” Biden said.
The astonishing reply came after CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe asked Biden to “assess his 10 and a half years as governor of the state.”
The president did not express sympathy for Cuomo’s victims, but said that “I respect the decision he made” to resign.
In a tense exchange with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, who questioned how he could praise Cuomo’s job performance when “he’s accused of sexually harassing” women, Biden said he was referring to Cuomo’s work as governor “outside of his personal behavior.”
Biden added that female accusers should be believed if they make claims that “make sense.”
“Women should be believed when they make accusations that are able to, on the face of them, make sense and they are investigated and the judgment was made that what they said was correct. That’s one thing. The question is did he do a good job on infrastructure. That was the question. He did,” Biden said.
Biden last week called on Cuomo to resign following the release of a devastating report commissioned by New York Attorney General Letitia James found he harassed 11 women — making impeachment likely.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday praised the “courageous women” whose complaints forced Cuomo’s resignation, which takes effect in 14 days.
Like Cuomo, Biden faces allegations of making women feel uncomfortable with unwanted touching. Biden allegedly skinny-dipped while vice president in front of Secret Service agents and a former Biden Senate aide, Tara Reade, alleges a 1993 sexual assault. But Psaki last week said the claims against Biden had been “heavily litigated” already, drawing pushback from Reade, who said her claims never were litigated.
The Albany, Manhattan, Nassau and Westchester district attorneys are investigating Cuomo for possible assault charges.
Biden was one of the last Democratic leaders to abandon Cuomo. Most members of New York’s congressional delegation in March called for Cuomo to step down as a series of women came forward to accuse Cuomo of misconduct.
The soon-to-be ex-governor also faces federal investigations into an infamous March 2020 state order requiring nursing homes to take COVID-19-positive patients and his administration’s subsequent coverup of death statistics.
The Justice Department’s Civil Division last year launched an inquiry into all state nursing home deaths, The Post first reported in October. His administration’s admitted slow-walking of data on deaths, also first reported by The Post, in February triggered an investigation by the FBI and the Brooklyn-based US attorney’s office.
The Biden Justice Department recently said it closed a narrow probe of whether a civil rights law was violated in the state’s handling of patients at the roughly two dozen public nursing homes in New York.
