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- Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation Tuesday amid several sexual harassment allegations.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez critiqued institutions that allow abuse of power via Twitter.
- “The intentional environment of fear & intimidation harassers create is far from a mistake,” said AOC.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation “necessary and long overdue.”
Cuomo announced on Tuesday that he would resign one week after a hefty 165-page report from the New York attorney general’s office found he sexually harassed 11 women.
Cuomo has denied wrongdoing. “In my mind, I never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line is redrawn,” Cuomo said when announcing his resignation.
Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats from New York began calling on Cuomo to resign in March of this year following a string of scandals plaguing the governor.
In her Tweets, Ocasio-Cortex appeared to refer to the AG investigation’s findings that a culture of bullying existed in the governor’s office, including reports that his office retaliated against his accusers.
Specifically, she critiqued the institutions and environments that allow for harassment and abuse of power.
-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 10, 2021
“There is a huge difference between having an awkward interaction and discussing / learning from it vs. mobilizing entire networks and institutions to bring in victims, silence coverage, and retaliate against those who report abuse,” she wrote. “Trying to blur that line helps abuses continue.”
Ocasio-Cortez concluded the string of tweets by saying: “Gov. Cuomo’s resignation is necessary and long overdue. But there is still a large amount of work ahead to account for and reverse the ways our institutions were molded over years to maximize the impunity and lack of transparency necessary for these abuses to unfold as they did.”
-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 10, 2021
Cuomo will be succeeded by New York’s soon-to-be first female governor, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, 14 days from his resignation announcement.