Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that he regretted his decision to resign as governor of New York in 2021 in the face of sexual harassment allegations, suggesting that he and perhaps the state would have been better off had he stayed in office.

“If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have resigned,” Mr. Cuomo said in a sit-down interview with The New York Times.

“At the time, I thought that I would be a distraction to government functionality, that they would all be involved in impeachment proceedings, blah, blah, blah,” he added. “Looking back, what has really been done in the past four years anyway, right?”

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who apologized for making women “feel uncomfortable” at the time, also said he now believes he could have fought to clear his name more quickly had he stayed in office and subjected himself to an impeachment process in the State Legislature.

The comments offered one of the clearest windows into Mr. Cuomo’s thinking since he began a comeback campaign for mayor of New York City in March. They came in a wide-ranging conversation just ahead of the first Democratic primary debate this week.

Mr. Cuomo, 67, is considered the prohibitive favorite in the June 24 contest, despite running a low-key campaign heavy with baggage from his 10-plus years as governor.