Cuomo again refuses to step down, says lawmakers calling for his resignation are 'bowing to cancel culture'

• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday once again refused to resign.
• "I did not do what has been alleged, period," Cuomo said.
• "People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth," he said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York once again refused to resign after more Democrats at the state and federal level called for his ouster.

"I did not do what has been alleged, period," Cuomo said on a conference call with reporters on Friday.

Despite staff departures and growing pressure from lawmakers to leave office, Cuomo dug in his heels and derided those demanding his resignation.

"People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth," the governor said.

Cuomo lashed out at politicians who had called for his resignation, which now includes much of the Empire State's congressional delegation.

"Politicians who don't know a single fact but yet form a conclusion and an opinion are, in my opinion, reckless and dangerous," Cuomo said, adding that they represented "politics at its worst."

Moments after promising that he would not speculate about the motives of the six women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, Cuomo said his time as New York's attorney general gave him a different perspective on such allegations.

"A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons," he said.

"The last allegation is not true," Cuomo said, referring to an aide's allegation, detailed in an Albany Times Union report this week, that the governor had groped her under her blouse when she was summoned to his private residence ostensibly to help him fix his iPhone.

When asked whether any of the allegations stemmed from consensual relationships, Cuomo again denied any misconduct.

"I never harassed anyone. I never abused anyone. I never assaulted anyone," Cuomo said. "Is it possible I have taken a picture with someone? Yes. And that is what you're hearing."

More than half of New York's Legislature has demanded Cuomo's resignation.

On Thursday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat who leads the majority party in the Legislature's lower chamber, launched a formal impeachment investigation into Cuomo's conduct.

Congress' and New York's impeachment processes are very similar. But if a trial were to begin, Cuomo would have to at least temporarily step aside and allow Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul to become the acting governor.

Several Democratic lawmakers in New York have told Insider they're open to impeaching Cuomo if he won't resign, though many legislators asking him to step down are not necessarily in favor of impeachment.