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When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo came under fire just a few weeks ago over his\u00a0handling of nursing home deaths<\/a>\u00a0in the pandemic, he and his top advisers followed their usual playbook to stem the fallout: They worked the phones, pressing his case in private calls to legislators and other New York Democrats.<\/p>\n Then came a crisis that Mr. Cuomo\u2019s signature blend of threats, flattery and browbeating could not mitigate. And he seemed to know it.<\/p>\n As three women\u00a0stepped forward<\/a>\u00a0with claims of\u00a0sexual harassment<\/a>\u00a0and other\u00a0unwanted advances<\/a>\u00a0by Mr. Cuomo, the most visible governor in America effectively went dark.<\/p>\n After one of the women detailed her accusations against the governor in a Medium post, State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, decided that she would come out with a statement\u00a0calling for an independent investigation<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 an implicit rebuke of Mr. Cuomo. She reached out to the governor\u2019s team to alert them, aware of the typical angry response.<\/p>\n No call came, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of my colleagues have said they have heard from the governor on this,\u201d Ms. Krueger said of the harassment accusations.<\/p>\n At the greatest moment of political peril for Mr. Cuomo in his decade in power, interviews with nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers, strategists and Albany veterans paint a portrait of a governor who is increasingly isolated.<\/p>\n Mr. Cuomo faces a\u00a0federal inquiry<\/a>\u00a0into his administration\u2019s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic and an\u00a0independent investigation<\/a>\u00a0into the harassment allegations, making his political path forward more challenging by the day.<\/p>\n On Friday, the State Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, passed legislation to significantly curtail Mr. Cuomo\u2019s vast emergency powers. When the governor appeared to suggest that he had played a role in the bill\u2019s formulation, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie \u2014 not prone to criticizing Mr. Cuomo \u2014 immediately shot that down, pointedly\u00a0saying in a statement<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cwe did not negotiate this bill with the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n Other lawmakers on Friday escalated their calls to reprimand the governor, demanding investigations, impeachment proceedings and even resignations, after The New York Times reported that his administration had\u00a0rewritten a report<\/a>\u00a0to obscure the full extent of nursing home deaths.<\/p>\n \u201cIf true, everyone involved in lying to the public and to the Legislature must resign immediately,\u201d said State Senator Rachel May, a Democrat from Syracuse. \u201cAnd that includes the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n It is an extraordinary turnaround for the man who was former President Donald J. Trump\u2019s most prominent foil in the early months of the pandemic and whose power in New York appeared nearly unassailable as 2021 began.<\/p>\n Some people who have spoken to Mr. Cuomo in recent days have described him as shaken by the speed with which the political fallout arrived, with dueling scandals and reports of his bullying behavior all converging, very publicly, at once. Others have questioned whether he grasped the gravity of his circumstances.<\/p>\n But the rapidly unfurling crises, they said, have been especially challenging for a governor who has always sought to be in control. Now he is at the whims of often-fickle public opinion, fuming legislators and investigations.<\/p>\n Amid mounting scrutiny and nine days without a news conference, Mr. Cuomo picked Wednesday\u00a0to emerge<\/a>, one week after Lindsey Boylan, one of two former aides to speak out, detailed her accusations \u2014 which the governor has strenuously denied.<\/p>\n His appearance followed strategy sessions with a small circle of trusted loyalists at the governor\u2019s mansion, amid internal deliberations about both the substance of his remarks and how to manage the delivery and tone on a sensitive subject, according to people who have been in touch with the team.<\/p>\n Longtime advisers and allies have helped the governor navigate the series of crises. They include two former top aides, Steven M. Cohen, the former secretary to the governor, and William Mulrow, another former secretary to the governor who now works at the private equity firm Blackstone; Melissa DeRosa, the governor\u2019s top aide; Mr. Cuomo\u2019s pollster, Jefrey Pollock; and Beth Garvey, special counsel to the governor.<\/p>\n The\u00a0result on Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0was an uncharacteristically rattled chief executive, who delivered an emotional apology for his conduct but insisted that he had never \u201ctouched anyone inappropriately\u201d and that he did not intend to resign.<\/p>\n \u201cPalace intrigue aside, there\u2019s a job to be done and New Yorkers elected the governor to do it,\u201d a spokesman for the governor, Richard Azzopardi, said in a statement. \u201cWhich is why he has been focused on getting as many shots in arms as possible, making sure New York is getting its fair share in Washington\u2019s Covid relief package and working on a state budget that is due in three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n People who have been in touch with Mr. Cuomo\u2019s team described some staff members \u2014 in particular, younger ones \u2014 as demoralized and exhausted, as a series of controversies play out on top of a year of navigating Covid-19 in an exceptionally demanding environment.<\/p>\n Several staff members\u00a0have departed<\/a>\u00a0his office in recent days, citing a variety of reasons. Among those who have left are Gareth Rhodes, who served as a member of the state coronavirus task force and was a frequent guest star during Mr. Cuomo\u2019s news briefings, and members of his press team.<\/p>\n As the Legislature heads into high-stakes budget negotiations, even Mr. Cuomo\u2019s traditional allies acknowledge that his influence has taken a hit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s made his job more difficult,\u201d said Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic Party chairman, who said he had spoken with Mr. Cuomo on Thursday. \u201cWhen you\u2019re under this kind of pressure, that\u2019s going to influence the amount of, the degree of, your political strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Jacobs seems to be the relatively rare political figure who has discussed the accusations with Mr. Cuomo directly. As the allegations unfolded, Mr. Cuomo\u2019s team denied wrongdoing and issued statements, but a number of leading lawmakers in Albany and Washington did not hear from the governor on the matter.<\/p>\n Donors, some of whom embrace Mr. Cuomo as a moderating force in the party,\u00a0began to worry<\/a>\u00a0about his future. And a person close to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul described an uptick in outreach to her office from political figures around the state \u2014 an unmistakable sign of uncertainty around Mr. Cuomo.<\/p>\n At least for now, many Democratic voters appear to see the dynamics concerning the governor differently, a reminder that the political impact of the controversies is fluid and unpredictable. A\u00a0Quinnipiac University poll<\/a>\u00a0out Thursday showed that Democrats overwhelmingly did not believe that he should resign, and half of those Democrats surveyed\u00a0supported his<\/a>\u00a0running for re-election next year.<\/p>\n But if Democratic voters are reserving some judgment on Mr. Cuomo, he has faced a staggering backlash from politicians in his party, many of whom have traditionally been reluctant to publicly challenge him \u2014 in some cases, for fear of retribution.<\/p>\n Overlaying all of the turmoil is a sense of great uncertainty around whether additional women will raise allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cAny further people coming forward, I would think it would be time for him to resign,\u201d\u00a0the State Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins<\/a>, said on Spectrum News\u2019s \u201cCapital Tonight\u201d on Thursday.<\/p>\n Indeed, the public outcry and the dearth of vocal defenders illustrate both the complexities of the problems Mr. Cuomo faces and how little he has invested in building mutually respectful relationships in politics. As with other New York politicians in times of extreme crisis, it is a dynamic that is haunting him now.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor is in trouble because he\u2019s a very tough guy and there are many people who don\u2019t like him,\u201d said George Arzt, a veteran New York political consultant who\u00a0has known Mr. Cuomo for years<\/a>. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have that reservoir of friends and good feeling to sort of push back. At this point, you don\u2019t see many surrogates out there, and that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked to point a reporter to surrogates for the governor, spokesmen for Mr. Cuomo did not respond.<\/p>\n In interviews over the past week, observers of Mr. Cuomo discussed political comparisons to the former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who\u00a0resigned abruptly<\/a>\u00a0after revelations of his involvement with a prostitution ring. In both cases, critics saw the men as domineering personalities who made enemies in political circles \u2014 leaving few people willing to go to bat for them when scandal hit.<\/p>\n \u201cSpitzer at one point thought that he could fight it, and that was quickly given up when he realized that his allies were not saying a word,\u201d Mr. Arzt recalled.<\/p>\n Certainly, he suggested, Mr. Cuomo \u201chas his own inner circle that is still ready to go to war with him\u201d \u2014 not to mention a long list of accomplishments in office and, Mr. Arzt said, \u201ctremendous skill as a tactician.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe if anyone can get out of this, he can,\u201d Mr. Arzt said. \u201cIf no other shoe drops.\u201d<\/p>\n And as Hank Sheinkopf, another longtime Democratic strategist, put it: \u201cEliot Spitzer had no friends. Andrew Cuomo has some friends.\u201d<\/p>\n This week, Hazel N. Dukes, the president of the N.A.A.C.P. New York State Conference, said of Mr. Cuomo that it was\u00a0\u201cridiculous to ask him to resign.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0And while few prominent New York politicians have rushed to defend him, many have also held their fire regarding the question of resignation, deferring first to the independent investigation.<\/p>\n For now, Mr. Cuomo continues to occupy a prominent space on the national stage: As the chairman of the National Governors Association, he\u00a0kicked off<\/a>\u00a0a meeting with President Biden and other governors during the last week of February. Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Biden have had a\u00a0strong political alliance<\/a>\u00a0in the past, but the two have not otherwise spoken since the harassment allegations broke, a Biden adviser said. The White House has indicated that it\u00a0supports<\/a>\u00a0the independent investigation of the accusations of harassment against the governor.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the investigation concludes, Democrats, I believe, will coalesce around doing the right thing,\u201d Mr. Jacobs said. \u201cWe have to let the chips fall where they may, but I don\u2019t see the value in a rush to judgment. I only see the potential cost.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, Mr. Cuomo\u2019s allies have quietly conducted outreach to figures including the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel that a woman\u2019s statements have to be taken seriously but that he deserves a full, fair investigation,\u201d Mr. Sharpton said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not calling, as of yet, for his resignation. But I\u2019m also not attacking the women.\u201d<\/p>\n The question for Mr. Cuomo is whether Democratic leaders are willing to wait for that investigation to play out, or if other developments force a reassessment of their posture before that happens. There are also many people in New York politics who have accumulated a list of grievances toward Mr. Cuomo that span decades. Some of them may relish the chance to break from him if they sense enough weakness \u2014 as they did with one of his predecessors.<\/p>\n \u201cI distinctly remember with Spitzer, watching it all go down and saying at the time to myself, if he just had a few more friends who were willing to stand by him, I bet he could get past this,\u201d Ms. Krueger said. \u201cBut it was all really rapid, and there wasn\u2019t anybody coming forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Luis Ferr\u00e9-Sadurn\u00ed and Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.<\/p>\n