- Kamala Harris has been noticeably quiet as other Democrats call for Cuomo's resignation.
- Democratic insiders say she's in a bind politically and can't get out ahead of her boss.
- Biden likely wants to avoid discussion of his own sexual-assault allegation.
- See more stories on Insider's business page .
The nation's top two Democrats — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — are notably absent from the growing list of prominent politicians calling for the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki has called the sexual-misconduct allegations against Cuomo "troubling" and said Biden and Harris are waiting for the results of a pending investigation into the behavior of the New York governor, himself a Democrat. Biden thinks Cuomo should resign if the investigation ultimately confirms the allegations against Cuomo, he told ABC News Tuesday night.
The early response from the White House has raised questions about why Harris — an outspoken critic of Brett Kavanaugh when he faced sexual-harassment allegations as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee — hasn't emerged as a more forceful public critic of Cuomo.
Harris in a tough spot politically, Democrats close to the vice president told Insider.
For one thing, she's the vice president, not the president. Following the president's lead comes with the territory, said a former US Senate staffer from California who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect professional relationships. "It's not just on this. They just defer to him on everything," they said.
Several Democrats told Insider it was plausible Biden and Harris disagreed on Cuomo, particularly given Harris' past criticism of powerful men facing sexual-misconduct allegations.
"It wouldn't surprise me if there were a difference of opinion, but that's not her call," one Democrat close to Harris said. What to say publicly about Cuomo is Biden's call, and Harris "probably doesn't want to be put in a weird position of trying to speak for him on that," that person added.
When Harris called for her Democratic colleague Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota to resign in 2017, she wrote on Twitter : "Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere. I believe the best thing for Senator Franken to do is step down."
Franken did exactly that .
When Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2018, Harris called it "a denial of justice for the women of this country and sexual-assault survivors, men and women."
And in 2019, Harris said : "No one should face harassment or intimidation in the workplace, and victims of sexual misconduct should be listened to, believed, and protected."
Now she's facing pushback from critics who say she's going easy on Cuomo because he's a fellow Democrat. People close to Harris told Insider she knew Cuomo but that they were not close.
Karoline Leavitt, the communications director for Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, wrote on Twitter that Harris "ascended to VPOTUS by lauding herself as a feminist & champion for women & girls" but now "as the most powerful woman in America, she remains silent on an egregious sexual assault scandal because it's against a political ally."
A Harris spokeswoman did not respond to Insider's request for comment about whether Harris thought Cuomo ought to resign.
"I'm sure a lot of her detractors will point to her remarks during Kavanaugh," the Democrat close to Harris said. But this person added that one key difference was Democrats thought the Kavanaugh confirmation was being rushed and there was no comparable rush for the Cuomo investigation.
That person said, "Since when does the VP get to tell the governor of New York or the governor of any state to resign?"
A big, complicating factor, according to Democrats, is Biden's own history.
Biden's former Senate aide Tara Reade last year accused Biden of sexually assaulting her while she worked for his office in 1993. Biden has unequivocally denied that allegation.
Other women have also accused Biden of touching them inappropriately or invading their personal space in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Republicans — despite Trump's long list of sexual-harassment and -assault accusations — have pilloried Biden over the allegations. Biden said during the presidential campaign that he would be more respectful of other people's space.
"It's fair to assume that part of the reason why Biden has been reticent to go after Cuomo is because these accusations are not all that dissimilar from accusations that dogged Biden in the primary," a longtime Democratic campaign strategist said.
But that's "not a good look" for Democrats, including Harris, that person added. "It looks bad to wage a campaign against Brett Kavanaugh like they did three years ago and then preach patience on Cuomo," they said.
Asked about Cuomo on Monday, Psaki said during a briefing that "new developments seem to happen every day. We find them troubling. The president finds them troubling, hard to read. And every woman who steps forward needs to be treated with dignity and respect."
Cuomo last met with Biden and Harris in February in the White House's Oval Office, where he and several other governors discussed federal COVID-19 relief efforts.
The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking whether he'd heard from either Harris or Biden on this matter.
Calls for Cuomo's resignation are mounting
Harris is not the only high-profile woman political official who's remained silent on the matter of Cuomo's resignation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the weekend stopped short of calling for his resignation .
When she was asked by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos whether she believed Cuomo could be an effective leader for the state of New York at this time, Pelosi skirted the question.
"I think we should see the results" of the investigation, she said. "Hopefully this result will be soon. And what I'm saying is the governor should look inside his heart" and see if he can "govern effectively," she added.
But outside the realms of Biden, Harris, and Pelosi, the conversation is heading in an entirely different direction. Harris' former colleagues in the Senate, as well as House Democrats close to Pelosi, have forcefully called for his resignation.
So far, more than a dozen New York congressional representatives have called for his departure.
Among them are powerful lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Jerry Nadler — the latter was a key figure in Trump's first of two impeachment trials.
"The allegations of these women are serious. They're deeply troubling," Schumer said last week in a SiriusXM interview, adding that they were "nauseating."
Calls for Cuomo's resignation have since extended beyond Congress. New York state lawmakers are joining in, urging him to step down as well.
A statement from the Long Island Senate Majority, a group of downstate state Senate Democrats, suggested Cuomo "step aside at least until such time that the Attorney General's investigation is complete."
These calls to resign are creating mounting pressure on Cuomo, who has apologized and acknowledged fault.
But he also indicated that he was not planning to go anywhere .
"I apologized several days ago. I apologized today," Cuomo said during a briefing earlier this month. "I will apologize tomorrow. I will apologize the day after. And I want New Yorkers to understand, because the facts will come out in the attorney general's review, but I want them to understand the emotion.
"I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable, and I truly and deeply apologize for it. And frankly, I am embarrassed by it. And that's not easy to say, but that's the truth."
But Democrats might play another card. Several New York lawmakers told Insider they would be open to impeachment if Cuomo refused to resign.
Via PakApNews