back. it's my way of saying i see you, i appreciate you, and i thank you. i'm not comfortable just walking past and ignoring them. of course, usually they are male troopers. in this case, i don't remember doing it at all. i didn't do it consciously with the female trooper. i did not mean any sexual connotation. i did not mean any intimacy by it. i just wasn't thinking. it was totally thoughtless in the literal sense of the word, but it was also insensitive. it was embarrassing to her and it was disrespectful. it was a mistake, plain and simple. i have no other words to explain

it. i want to personally apologize to her and her family. i have the greatest respect for her and for the new york state police. now, obviously in a highly political matter like this, there are many agendas and there are many motivations at play. if anyone thought otherwise, they would be naive and new yorkers are not naive. but i want to thank the women who came forward with sincere complaints. it is not easy to step forward, but you did an important service, and you taught me, and you taught others an important lesson. personal boundaries must be expanded and must be protected. i accept full responsibility. part of being new york tough is

being new york smart. new york smart tells us that this situation and moment are not about the facts. it's not about the truth. it's not about thoughtful analysis. it's not about how do we make the system better. this is about politics. and our political system today is too often driven by the extremes. rashness has replaced reasonableness. loudness has replaced soundness. twitter has become the public square for policy debate. there is an intelligent discussion to be had on gender-based actions, on generational and cultural behavioral differences, on setting higher standards and

finding reasonable resolution, but the political environment is too hot and it is too reactionary for that now, and it is unfortunate. now you know me, i'm a new yorker born and bred. i am a fighter, and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because i truly believe little politically motivated. i believe that it is unfair and it is untruthful, and i believe it -- it demonizes behavior that is unsustainable for society. if i could communicate the facts through the frenzy, new yorkers would understand. i believe that, but when i took my oath as governor then it

changed. i became a fighter, but i became a fighter for you, and it is your best interest that i must serve. this situation by its current trajectory will generate months of political and legal controversy. that is what is going to happen. that is how the political wind is blowing. it will consume government. it will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. it will brutalize people. the state assembly outlined weeks of process that will then lead to months of litigation. time and money that government should spend managing covid,

guarding against a delta variant, re-opening state and fighting gun violence and saving new york city. all that time would be wasted. this is one of the most challenging times for government in a generation. government really needs to function today. government needs to perform. it is a matter of life and death government operations and wasting energy on distractions is the last thing that state government should be doing, and i cannot be the cause of that. new york tough means new york loving, and i love new york, and i love you, and everything i have ever done has been motivated by that love, and i

would never want to be unhelpful in any way. and i think given the circumstances the best way i can help now is if i let step aside and let government get back to governing and therefore that's what i'll do because i work for you, and doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you. because as we say it's not about me. it's about we. kathy hokel, my lieutenant governor is smart and competent. this transition must be seamless. we have a lot going on. i'm very worried about the delta variant and so should you be, but she can come up to speed quickly and my resignation will be effective in 14 days. to my team, melissa de rosa, robert mejica, stephanie benton,

richard, rick cotton, jack davies and the hundreds of dedicated administration officials, i want to say this, thank you. thank you and be proud. we made new york state the progressive capital of the nation nobody accomplished more to help people and that is what it's all about. just think about what we did. we passed marriage equality, creating a new civil right, legalized love for the lgbtq community and we generated a force for change that swept the nation. we passed the safe act years ago. the smartest gun safety law in the united states of america and it banned the madness of assault weapons.

we've saved countless lives with that law. $15 minimum wage, the highest in the nation, lifting millions of families' standard of living putting more food on their tables and clothes on their backs and we lead the nation in economic just wiss justice with that retomorrow. we have managed every emergency mother nature could throw at us, fire, floods, hurricane, super storms and pandemics. we balanced the state budget and got it done on time, more than any other administration because government should work and perform. free college tuition for struggling families. nobody in this state will be denied their college dream because of their income. we have built new airport, rail, transit, roads all across this state faster and better than ever before, and more than any state in the nation, the most effective green economy program in the nation. we did more for black and latino

families than any other administration. we did more for working families. we did more for our union brothers and sisters. we did more to battle racism and antisemitism. today so much of the politics is just noise. just static and that's why people tune it out. what matters is actually improving people's lives and that's what you did. you made this state a better state for the generations that follow and that is undeniable, unusualable and true even in these ugly, crazy times. i thank speaker carl hasty and andrea stewart cousins for their leadership, and let me say this on a personal note, in many ways

i see the world through the eyes of my daughters, kaya, mariah and micaela. they are 26, 26, twins and 23. i have lived this experience with and through them. i have sat on the couch with them hearing the ugly accusations for weeks. i have seen the look in their eyes and the expression on their faces, and it hurt. i want my three jewels to know this, my greatest goal is for them to have a better future than the generations of women before them. it is still, in many way, a man's world. it always has been. we have sexism that is culturalized and institutionalized. my daughters have more talent and natural gifts than i ever had. i want to make sure that society allows them to fly as high as

their wings will carry them. there should be no assumptions, no stereotypes, no limitations. i want them to know from the bottom of my heart that i never did and i never would intentionally disrespect a woman or treat any woman differently than i would want them treated, and that is the god's honest truth. your dad made mistakes, and he apologized and he learned from it, and that's what life is all about. and i know the political process is flawed, and i understand there's cynicism and distrust and disappointment now, but don't give it up because government is still the best vehicle for making positive, social change.

lastly, i want to remind all new yorkers of an important lesson, and one that i will carry with me for the rest of my life and that's what you new yorkers did in battling covid. the enemy landed in new york state. covid launched the attack here. it came on planes from europe and we had no idea. it was an ambush, and it was up to new yorkers to fight back. we were on our own, and it was war. nurses, doctors, essential workers became our frontline heroes. hospitals became the battlegrounds. streets were still and sirens filled the city's silence.

trailers carried the bodies of our fallen brothers and sisters, but you refused to give up, and you fought back and you won going from the highest infection rate in the nation to one of the lowest. no one thought we could do it, but you did it. you led the nation, and you showed the way forward and how you did it is what's most important. you did it together. not as black new yorkers or white new yorkers, not as lgbtq new yorkers or straight new yorkers or democrats or republicans or downstate or upstate or muslim, protestant or catholic new yorkers, but as one community, one family, the family of new york. you overcame the naysayers and the haters and the fear and the division and you unified and you rose and you overcame and you

saved lives, and that was powerful in its effect. it was beautiful to see, and it was an honor to lead. please remember that lesson. hold it dear, and hold it up high for this nation to see because it is new york state at her finest, creating her legacy, fulfilling her destiny, giving life and animation to the lady in the harbor saying excelsior. we can be better, we can reach higher and proclaiming e pluribus unum. out of many, one, unity, community, love. that is our founding premise and our enduring promise, and that is the salvation of this nation

that it so desperately needs to hear. thank you for the honor of serving you. it has been the honor of my lifetime. god bless you. good day, this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington with breaking news out of new york. the embattled governor andrew cuomo announcing his resignation effective in 14 days. the lieutenant governor kathy hochul stepping in. cuomo saying he will step aside preventing further distraction from the state, this after slamming the state attorney general's report as false saying the report is filled with bias against him while apologizing to the 11 women accusing him of harassment saying he slipped with some of his comments toward them and adding that his actions toward a female state trooper were thoughtless and insensitive. joining us now, ron allen in manhattan. tom winter at 30 rock.

msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney general, and susan del percio who also served as special adviser to governor cuomo. >> ron allen, susan del percio, tom winter, let me start with you about the accusations and the way he tried to re-cast them today. let's fact check him and his attorney who preceded him before we get into the politics of it. >> sure, andrea. a couple of things. this is the first time we heard the governor address specifically the allegations made against him in that independent report released by the attorney general's office as it pertained to trooper number 1. this is a member of his protective detail who she says was the subject of, rather, sexual harassment and claims in statements made by the governor about her attire and about her dress and about the idea that

she was going to be married and that will result in a reduction in her sex drive according to the report. on top of that, she also said he touched her inappropriately at times. the governor addressed it and made several statements that i want to fact check, as you said. first off, that he was upset about the lack of diversity in the protective services unit, and that's the security detail and so as a result he wanted a woman onboard, an additional woman onboard his protective detail and that's belied by the facts in the report. according to the report, it says the senior investigator for the new york state police and just to give people an idea of the role of the senior investigator and the state police is the person who makes things happen day to day. that's an important job. so while they might not have the title of a captain or lieutenant, there are key people within the state police and the senior investigator immediately after this trooper number 1 met

governor cuomo along with another female trooper sent an email to trooper number 1 saying what did you say to him? seven question marks and made a comment that the governor wanted her on the detail tomorrow. that's a quote. on top of that, they changed the regulations for this trooper to join. she'd not had enough years on the job in order to be a part of the protective services unit and they bent the regulations for that. there were direct requests made from the executive chamber according to the report, and i just want to read something from the report specifically and just beg your indulgence here, andrea, because i want to pull it up. >> basically, they found, the independent investigators that the governor was not truthful in his statements that this was just purely a diverse hiring initiative. they found that the contemporaneous email sent by that senior investigator as well as testimony from that senior investigator indicated to them

that this was all an attempt to get this specific state trooper added to his detail. the governor did not address statements that he made about her attire. he made statements that she should perhaps be wearing a dress or more vibrant colors. andrea, the purpose of someone on the protective detail is to look out for the governor's safety. they are armed and it is difficult. this is not the swanky bar in a james bond film. you cannot hide a gun easily wearing a dress so i don't understand yet governor would be making those comments and that's something obviously trooper number 1 took issue with and stated to investigators that was information thanks also corroborated in that report. so an important fact check there as it pertains to trooper number 1. this whole incident, andrea, has been cast as a bias report. knowing one of the investigators personally, andrea, i have never seen that person engage in any sort of bias along those lines.

just a couple of different things that i'll raise there and send it back to you. >> well, stand by, tom. we'll go through more of this, but ron allen, the first woman, kathy hochul who will be the lieutenant governor will be the first woman governor of new york state and taking over in 14 days and by avoiding a near certain impeachment, he avoids a lifetime ban that was going to be immediate during the hearings. he was going to have to step aside during the hearings that were going to be imminent and that would be a lifetime ban on being able to run for future office. >> well, it is unclear if the impeachment process will stop and the hearing will go forward because of this potentially him running for office again and we haven't heard from the legislature about whether that's going to happen or not. y you're right. the lieutenant governor will take over and this is obviously an incredibly important time for not just new york state, but the

entire country given the pandemic and given the fact that the covid numbers are rising again in many places here as well as anywhere else as we begin the school year for kids. it's an incredibly important time and cuomo said that that's one of the reasons that he's leaving because of the need for government to get on with the business of serving the people, but the bottom line, andrea is that there was just a mountain of evidence and a mountain of opposition of him continuing. there's no analyst that i've heard in recent days that saw any path for him to go forward. he had virtually no support in the legislature and no support among democrats and even president biden had called for him to resign. we can go back and forth about the details of the report, what he said, didn't say, so on and so forth, but the bottom line is that the fall from grace is incredible. when you think back watching some of the covid briefings that

cuomo used to have where he was so in command, where he was so glib and so talkative and portraying himself the expert about covid and the strong leader in charge of this, and writing a best selling book about this whole thing and now a few months later he's a disgraced, fallen governor, and fallen in the biggest way and there is no one who supports him. we are dealing with the issue of the sexual harassment allegations that came against him, was there still the question about how he handled the whole nursing home issue regarding covid. there was the issue of him using covid tests in a preferential way for members of his family and for his staff. there were a litany of things that were insurmountable for the governor at this point. he had -- there was no one who supported him. just yesterday the leaders of

the state legislature came out and said within weeks the timetable was weeks before this impeachment process was wrapped up. just a couple of days ago, the governor's top lieutenant, the woman by his side day in and day out, melissa derosso quit because she couldn't support the governor publicly anymore given this mountain of allegations and through it all, the women, the 11 women who were the center of this whole matter stood strong. there was a barrage of retaliation against them. some of which was brought up in the report by the attorney general and about the governor and they stood strong and made their case. this was a huge emotional issue here in new york state in the country for that matter, but the bottom line is that cuomo had no support. no one saw it his way. he talked about generational differences and how times had changed and how he slipped, quote, unquote in his dealings

with the female trooper with other members of his entourage and his staff. this was not about slipping and generational matters. this was about a pattern of behavior that emerged in the reports by the attorney general and others about how cuomo conducted himself and it just became unacceptable and he crossed just too many lines and now he's gone. andrea? >> and susan del percio, let's follow up on the political fallout. you worked as an adviser to andrew cuomo and you've been very critical of his behaviors and his response to the report. what about the fallout because he would have had to step down if the impeachment hearings started under the rules of new york state. now we don't know if they'll proceed nonetheless try to revive his political career down the road and what is the outlook now?

first, i'd like to go to his final press conference there as governor and say what a disgraceful way of conducting yourself out the door. he basically had his lawyers discredit the investigators, discredit the media and the accusers and he went on the air and talked down to people saying it's just who i am. i'm sorry. that is unbelievable behavior and shows that he really has no remorse. he had no other choice, but to move on with resignation. he had no allies anywhere so this is what he had to do. when i was first listening to his attorney i was, like, why is she bringing a legal argument to a political fight? and then it turned out he knew he couldn't win that political fight. as far as the assembly goes there was no way andrew cuomo would allow his legacy to be that of the impeached cuomo. let's not forget, eight months

ago he was trying to be -- to break list father's record and get a fourth term and be the only person to get a fourth term as governor. so a lot has changed in a very quick period of time except the governor, i wouldn't put it past him to see if he could run down the road, but i think ron may be right that the assembly may go forward just so they can get something on the record. >> susan, i want to just clarify one thing because they're calling it a press conference. he did not have a press conference. he has not answered questions. there were no reporters there. he was just speaking from his script. as you pointed out, victim shaming and undercutting the allegations of all except for the trooper and trying to explain that one away. robert mcquade, let's talk about this, talk about generational change and how the lines have moved and the political climate and blaming it on the toxic political climate that we all

know exists. not taking personal responsible sit my point. >> i think those statements are more of a political defense than a legal defense and may be designed to connect with certain voters who might be sympathetic to those argument, but they certainly won't cut it under the law. a statute that is at issue here is the status of the civil rights act of 1964 which makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex. one of the ways people can be discriminated against is sexual harassment. there are allegations of touching of breasts, buttocks, stomachs, chests and backs and other things that are reasonably viewed as a sexual nature and it is not a defense to say i'm an old man and didn't know better. this was how i was raised. that's not a legal defense if they can be reasonably viewed as sexual in nature, that is sufficient and what's more, in

addition of a conduct of a sexual nature the totality of the -- for example, one of the women said that he hazed her. he made her sing "danny boy" for him and practice it and sing it for him. that is the kind of degrading, belittling behavior that contributes to this hostile work environment. so all of those works together painted a picture and now he needs to worry about what happens in civil lawsuits and criminal cases and one of the reasons i've seen people plead guilty and cut, bait and move on is because they're worried that additional investigation may uncover additional bad acts and so i don't know that, but we all remember that the whitewater investigation led us to monica lewinsky. maybe it's time to stop the investigators from snooping around. >> that's an interesting point, tom winter, if you want to pick up on that point, as well as

what his options were and the fact that his explanations were unchallenged because there was no one there to challenge him so he's presenting the best case and trying to remind people and imply that it's his legacy that new yorkers fought back from being ground zero in the pandemic that you new yorkers were so brave and implicit in that is the inference that he led new yorkers through the worst of that war against covid. >> i think it's telling any time a politician or elected official, andrea takes questions from reporters, he didn't even allow them in the room. the same for his attorney's statement and his personal statement that had taxpayer-funded live stream and the taxpayer funded slide setup that we watched last hour with our colleague craig melvin. the governor has taken zero

questions from the press since this independent report was released by the attorney general's office and his own attorney has done just a handful of interviews one with a competing cable network and one with this network and our colleague aymon mohyeldin, and the attorneys in the executive chamber should have released a cope of the report and the governor's own request from the senior counsel said the governor should not be briefed as is normally required by state law, but instead should get a final report at the end of it and there is no provision for the governor to see the report and the justice department office of internal investigations or oig reports and opi reports and this is want internal investigation and this was an investigation that was authorized by the

governor's office to look into claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, and i'm paraphrasing a little bit there. those are the facts. as far as where this goes from here with respect to the other investigations that have been open against governor cuomo, nobody's beating down my cell phone right now saying that the investigations are going to stop. there's a fair amount of serious investigations that are under way and the first is a criminal one filed by a woman who was groped and fondled by the governor. that's being looked at by the albany county's sheriff's office in conjunction with the district attorney and that's an investigation that is active and ongoing as we speak. there are also two other investigations, there are five total district attorneys in the state looking at it, but various allegation, but there's a couple that i think will probably concern the governor, one being led by the westchester county district attorney and a name familiar to people here, amy

rocca. they have a fair amount of nexus to westchester county, specifically mount kisco where the governor used to live with his girlfriend and some of the allegations made by trooper 1 was made in rocca's jurisdiction so we'll have to see where that goes, but as far as the governor's legal concerns taking the politics and impeachment that our colleague ron allen covered aside his legal concerns move forward, andrea. >> ron allen, i wanted to bring you a statement that you may also have seen from jay jacob, the democratic state chairman who was a loyal ally of the governor's through last march until that report came out just last week. so -- jay jacobs switched over to becoming a critic when he saw the 11 women and the detail and he's issued a statement saying about the new as of two weeks from now that new york will have

its first female governor. we could not be a better hands from helping her mother with the transitional shelter, kathy hochul has always relentlessly fought for the people of new york, and the town board member, county clerk, congresswoman and lieutenant governor makes her uniquely well equipped to effectively govern the state at this time. continuing this is jay jacob, the state chair, i am confident that incoming governor hochul's empathy, and welfare for the citizens will make her an outstanding governor for the state. ron, we know kathy hochul has been ready for this. she certainly has a lot of experience, and i suspect she'll have a lot of support in the assembly and throughout at least the organized democratic party. ron? >> i agree with you. there will be a lot of support

and a lot of coming together and there is an election coming up for governor soon, and they do not want to see that seat lost because of what cuomo has done. so it will be interesting how the democrats handle all of this going forward. these other matters like cuomo's book deal and the issue of covid testing and more importantly, the issue of the nursing home deaths that happened during the pandemic and whether the administration tried to undercount them to make the problem look less see severe than it was in beating back the pandemic. so, yes, i would think state democrats would rally around the governor to try to make sure that the state business proceeds and that the crises here are handled calmly and competently because there's election coming up and there are people lining up now to try and step up on the republican side and the democratic side. the campaign will probably begin in earnest very soon now that

cuomo is gone. he's such a powerful and all-consuming figure in the state. he's been governor for three terms. he's trying to get a fourth term and think, he has the legacy of his family, as well. there is a tremendous, huge void. a tremendous, huge opening in new york state politics now with him gone. andrea? >> and joining us now is of course, the moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. well, chuck, i've been covering the cuomos through mario and hud leadership and he's been a toxic presence and abrasive presence throughout his father's career and is an enforcer and throughout his tenure in the clinton administration and he found he had no friends anywhere in the democratic establishment and had no alternative. what's your take? >> he didn't. i had talked to somebody very close to him last week who said

they thought eventually he would get to resignation because he would not want to -- part of the punishment if he was convicted in an impeachment trial that he would no longer be able to serve in office in the state of new york. cuomo believes he can go and live another day. there was a lot of assumption that cuomo would stick this out and fight this as long as he could and buy time, delay, delay, delay. there was one other time when andrew cuomo took the politically pragmatic path and it paid off for him and it was the first time he ran for governor he quit mid-campaign when carl mccall was a state comptroller and that had started to get nasty and it had become clear, if cuomo could win it could have been a scorched earth and ends up basically stepping aside. it cleared the way for him to eventually become attorney general and then become governor, and it was the one

that i was thinking about in the last half hour that it's the one other time when he chose pragmatism over fighting and it did actually pay off for him long term. i do think that obviously the reality. he sees reality quicker than some folks thought he would. and it will be interesting to see if it's a coronation for kathy hochul. politically, she's probably the best sort of when you think about -- when you replace someone who is unpopular right now from andrew cuomo, a lot of times you look for the exact opposite personality, and that's kathy hochul. while that not always have worked in new york state it may work very well this time if you're looking for someone to calm the waters and she doesn't get worked up into new york city

politics and she's not a new york city democrat, and keeps out of that mess. i would be very interested to watch her in the sister six months and see if she essentially locks down this nomination and gets the party rallying around her fairly quick because in some ways this is the opportunity she's been handed and andrew cuomo did the new york democrats a favor, he got it away in an odd-number year and didn't drag it out until the calendar changed to '22. >> let's talk about the white house because the national head of the democratic party is joe biden. joe biden has not according to peter alexander at the whees has not talked to andrew cuomo since the report came out and importantly was calling for him toy is sign after that report came out and had been an ally and close friend, and so they were stunned. they were surprised. this was not the headline they expected today. they expected at least somewhat of a victory lap before facing a tough house vote down the road for that bipartisan

infrastructure package that just within the hour passed and passed with 19 republican votes and they expected to have that victory lap today with the white house briefing and then with the president coming out later today at 1:30, and now the questions are all and the focus are the democratic scandal and andrew cuomo. >> look. it's a short -- you can look at it via the short-term news cycle and yeah. it's not good for them, but i'll tell you, andrea, this was a long-term headache and cuomo stuck it out and stayed in the fight. remember, we're talking the state of new york and redistricting comes out soon, him at the top of the ticket or even vaguely still as a party broker. caused anxiety on house races and all of this stuff. yes, this steps on today's headline for the president and it's not an insignificant one at all, but i'll tell you, i think

they'll take a bad news cycle over what would have been a worse outcome had cuomo stuck it out. >> i just want to add, we've just gotten a line from the new about to be governor of new york kathy hochul. a one-line statement. i agree with governor cuomoey decision to step down and it is the right thing to do for new yorkers as someone who has served in all levels of government and next in the line of succession and prepared to lead as new york's governor. there is a note that the lieutenant governor will be commenting further in the near future. i expect that we will hear from her and perhaps a speech, press a press conference. wouldn't that be a novel idea to have reporters asking questions. >> so, chuck, this is a big national story. andrew cuomo could have been a presidential candidate down the road and ones, as you point out, whether this will be rising from the phoenix later on, but this is really his only alternative

given how united the assem bree was against him. >> his career was either perm minutely over or permanently over and he chose the path of permanently over. right? the resignation gives him, we know the way our world works. it's amazing. the people we've seen make political comebacks. you can't ever rule it out, and i think he realized he could become a pariah in the democratic party for sticking it out and fighting or he can -- not saying he will generate good will, but there are state s assembly members that didn't want to go through this process, didn't want to have to go through this. there are a lot of congressional democrats that are glad he did this. he eventually did something that

over time will at least give him an opening to maybe, oh, not be a full pariah in three years, four years, five years. i'm not saying this is about the next year or two, but think about what andrew cuomo's done his whole life. he's been basically a professional politician his whole life, either working on campaigns for his father and working on the administration or clinton administration and running for office himself. this is all he's known. what would he do without the ability to run for office? so, look, i expect in my lifetime, andrew cuomo to run for office again. what that office is? i don't know, but that's what this resignation tells me today. he wants to live to fight another day. >> he was pivoting, this is a man's world, i'm doing this for my three daughters and i want them to fly high and the legacy that he's hoping to remind them

of during the winter months during the pandemic. i know you've got to run because you have a show at 1:00, show. i don't need to remind you that at 1:00 you'll have a new mtp daily and i'll let you go do what you do best. thanks for stopping by. joining me now -- i want to circle back to susan del percio, you know kathy hochul. give me your insights into how she's going to manage this transition? >> i think she'll manage it very well. she's very smart. she's very capable. chuck mentioned a coronation. i just hope it's a coronation of support and that she doesn't make it a coronation of herself as she gets sworn in. this is still a very difficult time for new york and i think her top priority will be reassuring new yorkers that she's ready to deal with the delta variant. she is ready to lead on day one, and she will take us through this difficult time which she's

very capable of doing. it will be very interesting to see how things line up. she is not from new york city and new york city is the key in political primaries. democratic primaries in new york state. so we'll see how she does, but i expect her to do very well as far as leadership goes. >> emma, we are showing you also on a split screen there is what is gathering. a crowd of reporters and others, gathering outside the manhattan office of andrew cuomo from where he was speaking. thank you to susan del percio for your insights. i want to bring in former maryland congress donna edwards and brandon buck. donna, first to you. you probably served in congress with kathy hochul, i think you may have. you certainly know her and her reputation. your take on the first woman governor of new york two weeks from now. >> well, i'm excited about it.

i think kathy hochul will make an excellent governor for the state both from her background in experiences in the non-profit sector to every level of government. she brings a strong body of leadership. i did serve with her. i actually participated in a couple of programs with her since the two of us were in congress together, and i think that she is exactly the kind of person to be able to lead new york out of mess that's been left by governor cuomo and it will be a stark contrast, but she is, as susan said, ready from day one. and brandon buck, as someone who has advised two speakers of the house, both men, there is an election a year from now and this gives the republicans, this whole scandal gives republicans some hope for being able to grab

a major new york state, albeit a totally blue state. >> yeah, and i think as chuck mentioned the real question is whether or not kathy hochul is given that platform to be the nominee going forward because she is somewhat of a moderate and whether she's going to satisfy today's progressive politics and the demand from democratic voters. i do have to say, and i never thought i would say this. credit to new york democrats and the national democrats for pushing him out. this would not have happened if that wasn't the case. he was clearly a man on an island and frankly, pretty out of touch and arrogant. that was obvious last week when he wrote a montage of himself hugging people, but this is an issue of moral high ground for democrats and credit to them and my party in the donald trump era unfortunately, ceded that high ground and this was important for democrats to say, if we'll walk the walk, ask credit them

for doing it. totally shuffled. i think someone like lee zeldin, new york congressman is probably pretty excited now about a very unsettled democratic field and his chance to potentially flip a state. it's a big hurdle, but it's there now. >> correct me if i'm wrong, but -- if i'm wrong, but is there an andrew giuliani in the mix? the former -- of course, the son of rudy giuliani who had worked in the trump white house. does he have aspirations there, too? >> there is an andrew giuliani running. i don't know if there is an andrew giuliani who will be the nominee. andrew zeldin is the most likely to get the nomination, a trump ally, but someone with a bit more credibility in the state, i think. >> indeed, ron allen, i think you're outside manhattan office, excuse me, of andrew cuomo. what's going on out there on the

street? >> reporter: there is a lot of activity because there is anticipation that he will leave through that exit there that you see. there is a door that will rise up and his motorcade will exit there at some point. we've not gotten any indication when that might be or just anything more from him. the hope is from new yorkers that he will now disappear and leave the stage, and i think again, most democrats in the state certainly hope that this is not a prolonged, agonizing exit. it really came as a big surprise, when we were all summoned here, we thought he would have something to say about the allegations except for releasing the video statement when talking with his lawyers and when his lawyer went through a long litany of legalese and essentially trying to take apart the claims of the various women

who have come out against cuomo, we thought, okay, that's going to be the news of the day. we knew he was here, but we didn't know whether or not he would have any role in this alleged press conference that was supposed to be happening which, of course, was not that, but just a statement. so the point is now people are just digesting this. this was totally unexpected. the expectation was that cuomo was going to fight this out, fight this out, go through the process and drag this out and his term would not end for another 18 months or until the end of 2022 or until the election last november so there was every expectation that he would fight this to the finish and he kept maintaining throughout all of this that he was misunder stood and that he didn't intend anything sexual. he stepped over the line and misunderstandings, but the one thing that really came to fruition was the resignation of his top lieutenant yesterday,

melissa de rosa and the allegations that came out in the attorney general's report about the state trooper that he allegedly assaulted or touched in a way that was uncomfortable, or that she thought inappropriate and not just because of that part of it, this behavior, but because had essen manipulated the process of state government and of the police, the security, to have this woman transferred to his own personal detail. she wasn't eligible for that sort of promotion because she was so junior in the role. and when that came out, and when the police union, the union that represents the state troopers call for him to step aside, there was just a complete loss of faith. and when you have your security detail, the people that are responsible for it and who as he he even pointed out are the face of state government that so many new yorkers, so many citizens see even today as the new york

city police are the ones who are trying to control the crowd, trying to keep people back, trying to explain what's been happening. that and then the combination of the press conference and the outlining of the executive session that the state legislature, the judiciary committee had yesterday, when they outlined this process and when they talked about just the level of support up and down the line for his dismissal and against cuomo, the mountain of -- it's really just amazing, andrea, when you think about how this all kind of came together against such an incredibly powerful figure. and it really can't be understated how powerful a figure cuomo was in new york state. and he certainly had aspirations nationally. and he was in the discussion about vice presidential candidates, presidential candidates during the last cycle. it's just phenomenal what's happened. it was not expected. but now that it has happened it's obvious that it was probably going to happen because

there was no way that he was going to survive an impeachment process. and hearing would have just dragged out more and more detail. and again, today we've been focusing so much on the issue -- the harassment issues, the sexual misconduct issues. we haven't even talked about the issue of nursing home deaths and how the cuomo administration allegedly manipulated those figures to make it seem better than it was and how at the root of that was a policy of allowing nursing home patients to return to their communities after they had tested positive and after they have had covid rather than having them stay in a hospital. it's a complicated situation. but the bottom line is that the heart of the allegation is that the administration manipulated these figures and allowed for this process of transfer in a very insensitive callous way. they maintain they were gielded by the science, they were guided by other things. but i can tell you from talking

to people who have loved ones in nursing homes they just saw this as an abhorrent dereliction of duty or whatever you want to call it. they just saw it as unconscionable that the administration would allow this to happen. and again, at the height of the pandemic, when people were losing their lives in just extraordinary numbers. then there's the book deal. he allegedly made millions of dollars, used staff to help him write this best-selling book about leadership at the height of the pandemic. how do you write a book when you're leading the effort to try and fight this thing was the obvious question. and the questions that that has raised. and this issue again of during the covid testing process, when covid testing is such a huge, huge issue. there are allegations that he allowed his staff, his relatives, friends, others to get to the front of the line essentially to get these covid tests, which were so important. and still are. but were so important back at the time months ago when we were

trying to understand the extent of the pandemic. so there's a lot more. he's gone but -- >> and we're going to have to jump to the white house because jen psaki is taking questions now about governor cuomo. so thanks to ron. >> and those stand. he -- our view is that this is a story about these courageous women who came forward, told their stories, shared their stories, and an investigation overseen by the attorney general that of course concluded today and an outcome that the president called for just last week. i know a number of you have asked whether the president has talked to the attorney general since this report came out. the answer is no. whether we had a heads-up on this announcement today. the answer is no. >> you said the attorney general. of new york? >> i'm sorry. the governor. yes. thank you for that clarification. >> any plans for the president to now reach out to and talk to

the governor now that he has announced resignation? >> no plans that i'm aware of. >> -- infrastructure today. >> darlene what i can assure of is the american people across the country who are commuting back and forth to work, driving their kids to many kap, worried about whether their kids have access to clean drinking water, focused on whether schools are going to have the resources they need are most focused on the fact that 69 members of the senate, 19 republicans joined the democratic caucus to take an important step forward. that's my bet in terms of what people are talking about at home. >> we're still a few weeks away from the president's plan to withdraw all u.s. troops from the country. we're now seeing so many -- >> jen psaki at her briefing saying that she believes that the american people are going to be more focused on the fact that the infrastructure bill passed today, that they can get services, highways, clean water

and the like, and that 19 republicans voted for it than what's happening with governor cuomo. that said, she also answered, herself answered questions she anticipated which is that the president did not know this was coming, has not talked to andrew cuomo, and there's no plan for him to talk to andrew cuomo. just want to also point out that senator gillibrand, who of course was a critic early calling for his resignation, i think the governor did the right thing and i just want to commend the brave and courageous women who came forward. that was not an easy thing to do. he should also says, "my view from the beginning was that after these numerous credible allegations came out that because the governor had lost the support of his governing partners that it was time for him to resign." she also made a comment about kathy hochul saying governor kathy hochul will be an extraordinary governor, "she understands the complexities and needs of our state. having seen -- been both a congresswoman and having been a lieutenant governor for the last several years, she's ready and

able and capable of being an extraordinary governor and i look forward to supporting her and helping her as she turns toward governing our state in a very difficult and challenging time." there was also a fairly predictable comment from mayor de blasio, who has been a long-time political enemy and adversary of andrew cuomo's, saying that "make no mistake, this is the result of survivors bravely telling their stories. it was past time for andrew cuomo to resign. it is for the good of all of the people of new york." so there you have it. andrew cuomo resigning under fire, trying to pivot to his legacy by resigning, hoping to avoid impeachment. and if impeachment ends, could ban him forever from trying to revive his political career and run again. and that does it for us for this extraordinary edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow us online and on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. our thanks to all. and chuck todd is up next with more on andrew cuomo and all the other breaking news on "mtp daily," only right here on msnbc. you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself.

so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'm on it. sounds like a plan.

for years, i struggled with anxiety and depression. but when i was ready for help, finding the right care was nearly impossible. luckily, he had us. as mental health professionals, we could help him navigate the system. not everyone has that. that's why i started cerebral. online mental healthcare, without the high cost and wait times. with our affordable care model, you can get meds prescribed and delivered. and talk with a licensed therapist on your own time. with cerebral, everyone gets a care team. get your first month for just $30 at getcerebral.com.

welcome to "meet the press daily." it has been an extraordinarily busy tuesday in american politics. it's august, right? i've got to check the calendar. we've got a lot of breaking news out of washington. and of course out of albany. in washington what would have been our lead, the senate has finally passed the president's bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. it's a big piece of bipartisanship. it's nicknamed the b.i.f. i think somebody might say it's a b.f.d., the b.i.f. at the white house in just about 30 minutes or so president biden and vice president harris are going to deliver remarks about that landmark legislation, what makes it so landmark is the fact it was bipartisan. this used to be not that hard to do back in the late 20th century. but this will also be biden's first chance to respond