BUFFALO, N.Y. – Both of New York's United States senators held press conferences Friday to discuss, from their perspective, positive news: The Senate's passage of the latest COVID stimulus bill.

However, reporters turned some of the focus during both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's event in Buffalo and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's virtual press conference to the multiple sexual harassment accusations women have lobbied against fellow Democrat and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Schumer's response was measured and limited. He said the allegations from each of the women are serious and troubling and all of them have to be examined individually.

"I early on called for the attorney general to do an investigation and I have confidence that she will do a complete and thorough investigation," he said. "She will follow every lead. She will interview and use her subpoena power. She will turn over every stone and I have faith that she will make sure that there is no outside interference or otherwise."

Schumer did not go as far as to call for the governor's resignation. Neither did Senator Gillibrand who answered a few more questions but hit the same main points about being troubled by the accusations and having faith in the investigation Attorney General Tish James is overseeing. Tuesday James appointed two special investigators, Joon Kim and Anne Clark, to lead it.

Gillibrand was also questioned though about whether her tone has changed from several years ago, when she was one of the first to call on Senator Al Franken to resign amid allegations of inappropriate conduct. The senator said the #MeToo movement remains important and her tone has not changed.

She said she and her colleagues called for weeks for an ethics investigation before finally asking Franken to resign.

"It wasn't until the allegations mounted to eight and two of the women were identified as employees of the U.S. Senate that my colleagues and I decided it was time to ask him to resign but at the end of the day that was Senator Franken's decision," she said.

Gillibrand did say she admired State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousin who recently called for Cuomo to step aside. She said Stewart Cousins is well within her right to make that call.

Gillibrand pointed out the state senate has a direct say in how to deal with the accusations against the governor, comparing it to when she and her colleagues took a stance on Franken and addressed how the Senate deals with sexual harassment accusations.