Biden Believes Cuomo Accusers Should to Be Heard, Supports Investigation: Psaki

Despite a growing number of Democratic politicians calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign amid allegations of sexual harrassment, the White House has avoided taking a position on Cuomo's future.

Asked again at the White House briefing Friday whether President Joe Biden believes Cuomo should step down, Psaki said the president believes every woman who has accused the governor "deserves to have her voice heard," adding Biden supports the independent New York attorney general investigation.

But Psaki said beyond that, she doesn't "have any additional announcements" on the matter.

The press secretary also defended the administration keeping the two-dose vaccine from AstraZeneca despite the fact it is not yet approved by the FDA, insisting Friday, the White House wants to make sure the nation has "maximal flexibility" and is "over-supplied and over-prepared."

"There are still 1400 people that are dying in our country every day," Psaki said, "and we need to focus on addressing that."

The situation has caused a bit of a tussle with U.S. allies as millions of coronavirus vaccine doses are sitting in cold storage in the U.S. that can't be injected in the states because they are not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but the Biden administration is not allowing them to be sent overseas, where American allies are struggling to get enough doses for vulnerable populations.

"At this time, there have been requests around the world, of course, from a number of countries who have requested doses from the United States and we have not provided doses from the U.S. government to anyone. So this is not about Europe," Psaki said. "This is about our focus and our priority, which we have been very public and clearly stated."

Psaki was also asked anew whether former President Donald Trump deserves any credit for ramping up vaccine supply in his final months in office.

She said Biden has many times conveyed that the vaccine progress that's been made has been a "Herculean incredible effort by science," and said they have applauded that many times in the past, without mentioning the former president.

"Americans are looking for facts. They're looking for details. They're looking for specifics. I don't think they're worried too much about applause from six months ago when the president has already delivered that publicly," she said.

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