united states and around the world. tonight, new york governor andrew cuomo is clinging to power in the face of multiple allegations of sexual harassment and unwanted advancements. but he is increasingly isolated after a piece in the new york magazine. a performer political reporter who covered the administration said the governor sexually harassed her in front of colleagues on multiple occasions. she grows a growing list. he is denying any wrong doing and refusing to resign tonight. cnn's athena jones is in new york. what do we know about the new allegations? >> reporter: hi, pamela. they are coming from, as you said, a journalist, jessica bakeman, a former capital beat reporter. she writes in a first person piece in new york mag give, and the multiple intenses. cuomo has hands had been on my body, my shoulders, waist. she adds, cuomo never let me forget i'm a woman. she describes her job as to report on the governor's every move. she didn't want to go to the holiday party at the executive mansion she writes about. she describes her interactions to the governor saying he put his other arm around my back, hand on my waist and held me firmly in place and said, i'm sorry, am i making you uncomfortable? i thought we were going steady? i stood there in stunned silence, shocked and humiliated. but that was the point. she explains she felt hue miliad about a joke that took place in front of her colleagues. she never thought the actions were about wanting to have sex with her. but more about power, wanting her to feel powerless, and when it comes to women, he uses touching and sexual innuendo to invoke fear in us. that is it the textbook definition of sexual harassment. we reached out to the governor's office for a comment on the latest allegations. they have not responded but the governor did address allegations overall during his press conference on friday. listen to what he had to say then. >> people know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture and the truth. let the review proceed. i am not going to resign. i was not elected by the politicians, i was elected by the people. i never harassed anyone. i never assaulted anyone. i never abused anyone. and the extent you say people, he took a picture with me and i was uncomfortable. i apologize for that. i have not a sexual relationship that was inappropriate period. >> the governor said he did nothing wrong. he is urging the public to let the investigation play out, to wait for the facts. pamela? >> governor cuomo is the pub jekt of an impeachment investigation. how can i play out? >> there is an investigation by the new york judiciary committee, and there has to be a vote to impeach in the assembly. 150 members, 76 members would vote in favor of impeachment. if the governor were to be impeached, the lieutenant governor would take over, and the governor would stand trial in the senate. the jurors would be the senators as well as the judges on the court of appeals. there would have to be a t two-thirds vote to conflict the governor. that is how it plays out. right now, just the investigation part. >> all right, athena jones, thanks very much. one year into the coronavirus pandemic, and it seems our future is just teetering on the razor's edge. one hand there is so much encouraging news about vaccines, and president biden is holding out that july 4th could mark the beginning of the end. and some areas like the state of texas are reopening bars and restaurants. listen to what this doctor said about that. >> very few things that people can predict but i am sure we are going to have a surge. the last two days, i have already started to see a surge in cases. if you came to texas, you will say, hey, the pandemic disappeared overnight. it is amazing. you go outside, all the clubs are packed. people not wearing masks. it's very disappointing. >> and check this. more people boarded airplanes friday more than any other day since the start of the pandemic. more than 1.3 million people passed through tsa check points. the most since march 15th, 2020. even though the cdc is urging people to stay home unless absolutely necessary. and more than 100 million covid 19 doses have been administered. a real concern for the rest of us. miguel marquez has more. >> as coronavirus vaccinations pick up steam, some are not convinced it's safe. enough of them could make it tougher to get back to prepandemic life. >> i think that smepeople shoule allowed to choose, have medical freedom. >> reporter: a pharmacist says she isn't opposed to vaccines but getting one is a matter of individual choice. >> it doesn't matter what trump did, what biden is doing. what matters is do i get the choice to say what's good for sne. >> reporter: nursing assistant and mom of three sequoia, says she won't get the coronavirus vaccine because she does not believe the virus is a throat her. >> i feel i would be able to get -- if i was to get sick, i would get natural immunity to it. it wouldn't be as detrimental to me. >> reporter: they say they support a bill barring punishment against those who refuse any vaccine. >> we introduced house bill 220. >> reporter: the granite state, one of ten currently considering legislation allowing citizens to opt out of vaccinations, provprotect from being pun niched for not getting it. >> the state should have a m mandate and they all have to have. >> he expects to pass be bipartisan support. and school vaccinations and some law enforcement medical emergencies. >> is there a reason we will not get to the heard immunity? >> we don't have vaccines right now, and people are getting vaccinated. >> reporter: when it comes to he is tansy, polls show a higher degree of skepticism of republicans. 46% of republicans nationwide said they would not try to get the vaccine. here in new hampshire, 45% of republicans say they almost certainly or probably would not get vaccinated. >> that was cnn's miguel marquez there. overseas this weekend, coronavirus cases are surging in italy. and the government sl responding locking down half the country. delia is there life with more. >> reporter: they are repairing for lockdown starting monday. rome, milan, venice, on full lockdown. the weekend of easter, so busy here, will be a national lock do lockdown. the measures are necessary because of the rise in transmission rate due to variants. the variants first eye didentifn the uk is now prevalent, and they are being taken to help bring that rate of transmission down. the prime minister spoke to the country yesterday. here is a little bit of what he had to say. >> translator: the memory of what happened last spring is still vivid and we will do everything possible to prevent it from happening again. the government has adopted restrictive measures today. >> reporter: the prime minister adding he wants to explanned and accelerate the vaccination program. they are vaccinating about 170,000 people a day. he intend to triple that. that will be a key element to help move italy out of the situation. pam? >> thanks very much for that. lots more coming up this hour. including actress and comedienne margaret cho on violence on asian americans. and what it takes to get kids back in the classroom, and steve adler in a feud about the city mandate. and republicans trying to create a new standard in the rule to vote. david becker joins me next discuss the court battles that could affect your right to vote. stay with us. can i have both? new dove care & protect body wash eliminates 99% of bacteria and moisturizes for hours two for one! can i keep it? new dove care & protect, zero compromise! that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back. ♪ ♪ ♪like an echo in the forest♪ [singing in korean] ♪another day will return♪ [singing in korean] ♪like nothing ever happened♪ ♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪ are you managing your diabetes... we're made for. ...using fingersticks? 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not on my watch! you can't plan for your period's... what the gush moments. but the right pad can. only always ultra thins have rapiddry technology and, they absorb 40% faster. the gush happens fast. that's why always absorbs faster. the latest flash point in the fight over voting is arizona. nearly two dozen bills that restrict voting have been introduced in the state this year. some will limit the popular vote since 2007 that accounts for nearly 80% of the state's votes. one bill would remove people who skipped two election cycles from the permanent early voting list. they are trying to create a new standard in the right to vote. use it or lose it. they are using it to bolster election security and integrity. but they challenged the line of thinking yesterday. >> there was no fraud found in the state in the last election. we do count all legal votes in the state. so this is just solutions in search of a problem that doesn't exist. >> she had -- the republican governor, he tweeted n arizona, we have some of the strongest election laws in the country. we review every signature, every one by hand, unlike other states that use computers, ballot harvesting, clear deadlines, including no ballots after election day. the problems that exist in other states simply don't apply here. that is from the governor is this about fraud or better republican odds. john cavanaugh who shares the government and elections committee may have provided that anxious. republicans are more concerned about fraud so we don't mind putting security measures in, and he adds, not everybody wants to vote, and if someone is uninterested in voting that probably means they are totally uninformed on the issues. quantity is important. but we have to look at the quality of votes as well. for the record, the right to vote is not predicated on how informed an american is. there is no quality standard for the type of american who gets to vote. there used to be in a shameful period of american history in the jim crow area, when literacy tests were used. when the bills make it to the desk, he has to decide where to sign on to the angle or stand by what he and the secretary of state ha have been saying and veto the measures. we want to you know that we reached tout his office but they declined to discuss the issue. law expert david becker joins me now, he is executive director of innovation and research. you have been on the front lines, looking at all the bills that the legislatures are trying to pass. before we get to that, what is your big take away from 2020 in terms of election integrity and fraud? >> thanks so much for having me. it's important to think about the election cycle. it was undeniably, factually speaking, reality was. voter lists, states have been sharing stay ta on people who moved, and they have more contact with people by mail, which gives them a lot of feedback as to whether people have moved. there are more paper ballots that are auditible. more than 95,000 americans voted on paper ballots. we saw much more cooperation between the federal government and the state election offices and the local election offices and sharing information about potential threats, cyber threats and other things like that. we saw more preelection litigation, setting the rules, and trump's campaign wants some of the lawsuits, and everyone knew what the rules were going in election day, which was so important. we saw more post election litigation, and this was a little different. not a sing the court found there was significant irregularities or fraud, despite over 60 cases being filed. we did it in the context of a global pandemic where we saw more turn out than over l ever before in american history. two-thirds of all voters voting. the highest rate since women were given the right to vote in the early 20th century. this is actually a triumph, in american democracy, and it's disappointing to see legislation that might roll back some of the infrastructure that enabled the triumph. >> this was the most security election in history. up laid out a number of markers why that is. do you think what the republican legislatures are trying to do is political? what you're saying is this election is more security than when trump won more than four years ago, and we did not see the legislature taking the same steps. did you view it as purely political. >> i think it's largely political. i think it's always a bad idea when partisans -- and historic it, it's not just republicans. but it is right now, and it hasn't been equivalent. but when partisans try to gain the i election rule so they can enhance the possibility of winning an election in the future that is really dangerous. it's bad policy. usually ends up backfiring on the party who is doing it. particularly troubling when it happens after tremendous success right now. you look at a state like georgia, and three recounts of all the presidential ballots. the first election with paper ballots in two decades, and tremendously accurate voter lists. georgia is being attacked and it's in many ways a model for the nation. >> let me ask you this, house democrats passed hr-1. the for the people act and they say it's to counter the ledge lags, and to limit gerrymandering. but democrats say if the 2020 election was such a success, does the legislation under cut that argument? >> well, i think there's a lot of good in hr-1, and i can understand why democrats and the people who supported it do support it. i think what hr-1 is trying to do and what is really good policy. whether it's hr-1 or somewhere else is to take the things you have seen, and the states have been the leaders, and we have seen states offer extensive early voting. it's good for election security. it's an early warning system for fraud or some kind of cyber threat that might interfere with the election process. we saw about 60% of all bat lots cast early this year. a reason we know it's so security. and automatic voter r registration. other aspects that are led by the states, and many republican states as it has been, and trying to entlooin that in law, and trying to crate for all american voters. that is sgenerally a good idea. >> we will continue to cover the really important topic. we appreciate it. >> thanks, pamela. >> it's one of the most hotly debated topics in the country right now. when will kids be back in the classroom? 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>> yeah, i think that is definitely the hot question, and personally, no, without full production from the vaccine, without knowing that my students and their families were protected, i think there are many teachers like myself who don't feel comfortable being face to face in the classroom. >> so what do you say to those who would push back and say, look, teachers are classified as efficient employees. why don't they go to work if they don't have full immunity? >> i think all essential workers, including all those groups we just mentioned, should have access in the student to get the vaccine before they are asked to put themselves in harm's way, and i think that is the most important thing that we do to protect both our students and educators. >> this is such a tough issue. i know so many ways, you know, this education secretary said part of the challenge is the fear