Biden confronted by female reporter after saying Andrew Cuomo did 'a helluva job' as governor

Joe Biden was confronted by a female reporter during a press conference this week after the president said Andrew Cuomo had done "a helluva job" as New York's head of state.

As reported by The Independent, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins took umbrage with the President's praise of Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo - who has served for over a decade as the 56th governor of New York - has recently stepped down from his position following allegations of sexual harassment.

The Associated Press reports that Cuomo, 63, resigned from his position a week after an investigation had found that Cuomo had sexually harassed at least 11 women. Cuomo said in a televised address: "The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing."

However, on August 10, CBS News' Ed O'Keefe asked President Biden how he would "assess [Cuomo's] 10 and a half years as governor of the state".

After clarifying that the question was about Cuomo's run as NY governor and not his personal behavior, Biden said: "Well, he's done a helluva job. He's done a helluva job. Both on access to voting to infrastructure."

Confronting Biden on this answer, CNN's Kaitlan Collins later asked the president: "Can I quickly follow up on your comment on Governor Cuomo. Can you really say he's done a, quote, 'helluva job', if he's accused of sexually harassing women on the job?"

Biden responded by saying: "You asked two different questions. Should he remain as governor is one question. And women should be believed when they make accusations that are able to, on the face of them, make sense, and investigated."

Misstating O'Keefe's original question, Biden then said: "The question is, did he do a good job on infrastructure? That was the question. He did."

After the question was further clarified to be about Cuomo's time as governor in general, Collins questioned Biden over whether or not Cuomo's personal actions could be separated from his professional ones.

"I was asked a specific question,” Biden then adds. "I'm trying to answer specifically."

On Tuesday, following the publishing of the probe into Cuomo's conduct, Biden told reporters that he believed the governor should resign.

Featured image credit: Xinhua / Alamy