In a pair of reports stories Saturday, two extra former aides to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused him of sexual harassment, including to a mou
In a pair of reports stories Saturday, two extra former aides to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused him of sexual harassment, including to a mounting checklist of allegations which have spurred requires Cuomo, a Democrat, to resign — and even to face impeachment.
In response to Ana Liss, a former coverage and operations aide to Cuomo from 2013 to 2015, the governor repeatedly inquired about her private life, touched her, and on one event even kissed her hand. Liss’s allegations have been first reported by the Wall Avenue Journal, backed by recollections from a number of nameless former staffers.
Individually, Karen Hinton — a former Cuomo aide who additionally labored with the now-governor as a marketing consultant when he led the New York Division of Housing and City Improvement — informed the Washington Publish Saturday that Cuomo invited her to his lodge, requested her private questions on her marriage, and hugged her repeatedly in a way that was “very lengthy, too lengthy, too tight, too intimate” when she tried to depart.
“He pulls me again for one more intimate embrace,” Hinton informed the Publish of the encounter. “I assumed at that second it may result in a kiss, it may result in different issues, so I simply draw back once more, and I depart.”
A number of individuals additionally confirmed to the Publish that Hinton detailed the encounter to them shortly after it occurred in 2000, with one buddy stating that Hinton was “actually creeped out. It actually freaked her out.”
Cuomo’s workplace has dismissed each accounts in statements to the Wall Avenue Journal and to the Washington Publish, casting Hinton as “a identified antagonist of the Governor’s who’s trying to reap the benefits of this second to attain low-cost factors with made up allegations from 21 years in the past” and claiming that hugs and kisses — the behaviors that make up the alleged inappropriate and undesirable bodily contact — are simply “what individuals in politics do.”
Liss and Hinton are removed from the one former aides to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment and misconduct. Each tales are backed by further nameless accounts from others who’ve labored with or for Cuomo — together with that of a federal official who informed the Publish Cuomo kissed her on the cheek in entrance of colleagues shortly after she started work at HUD — and they’re the fourth and fifth named accusers to emerge in current weeks.
Beforehand, two different former aides — Lindsey Boylan, now a candidate for Manhattan Borough President, and Charlotte Bennett — accused Cuomo of sexual harassment. A 3rd girl, Anna Ruch, who didn’t work Cuomo, recounted assembly the governor at a buddy’s wedding ceremony, and says he tried to kiss her.
Ruch’s allegations are additionally backed by a photograph of the encounter. Her story, in addition to Bennett’s, was first reported by the New York Occasions. Boylan first accused Cuomo of misconduct in an essay posted to Medium in February this 12 months.
In accordance Bennett, Cuomo requested her about her intercourse life and whether or not she was occupied with older males, amongst different feedback.
“I understood that the governor needed to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett informed the Occasions of a June 5 encounter with Cuomo in his Albany workplace. “And was questioning how I used to be going to get out of it and assumed it was the top of my job.”
Cuomo is dealing with a flurry of misconduct allegations proper now
Along with a slew of sexual harassment allegations, Cuomo can be dealing with at the very least two different carefully linked scandals which have left his political profession in jeopardy.
One revolves round his dealing with of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York: Regardless of a star flip for Cuomo early within the disaster, when New York Metropolis was by far and away the hardest-hit space of the nation, new stories recommend that the Cuomo administration intentionally manipulated nursing house dying statistics to forged New York’s response in a extra favorable mild — and to protect the governor from criticism.
In response to the New York Occasions, Cuomo aides — none of whom had a background in public well being — rewrote a report first produced by New York state well being officers to take away a statistic revealing what number of nursing house residents died from the virus within the state.
Moreover, a report by New York Legal professional Common Letitia James discovered that the Cuomo administration initially undercounted these nursing house deaths by as a lot as 50 %, based on the New York Occasions. After the lawyer normal’s report was launched in late January, the state offered new information that elevated the reported variety of nursing house deaths in New York by greater than 40 %.
Cuomo’s response to the nursing house scandal has additionally spun off right into a scandal in its personal proper: In February, New York Assemblyman Ron Kim, who can be a Democrat, stated Cuomo allegedly threatened Kim’s profession in politics over Kim’s criticism of Cuomo’s dealing with of nursing house deaths in New York, and feedback Kim made to the New York Publish detailing a name Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa had with lawmakers in regards to the deaths.
“Gov. Cuomo referred to as me instantly on Thursday to threaten my profession if I didn’t cowl up for Melissa and what she stated. He tried to stress me to problem a press release, and it was a really traumatizing expertise,” Kim informed CNN final month.
Kim additionally alleges that Cuomo informed him, “We’re on this enterprise collectively and we don’t cross sure strains, and he stated I hadn’t seen his wrath and that he can destroy me.”
Kim’s account has since sparked the revelation of plenty of different related tales about Cuomo from New York politicians, which have been bolstered by Saturday’s Washington Publish story about Hinton.
In response to the Publish, Cuomo “was usually consumed by rage and irritation towards [staffers], solely to be type and charming of their subsequent interactions. They discovered the sharp distinction to be deeply disorienting, with some saying it even drove colleagues to endure emotional breakdowns.”
In the identical story, Kim informed the Washington Publish that Cuomo’s habits was a sample.
“He feels untouchable,” Kim stated of Cuomo. “Whether or not it’s verbal or bodily abuse, or threatening lawmakers or journalists for doing their jobs, it’s come to a stage the place it’s so normalized that he doesn’t suppose twice about behaving that approach.”
Cuomo says he isn’t going wherever
Regardless of the mounting and numerous set of misconduct allegations dealing with Cuomo, it’s unclear what the longer term holds for him. James, the New York lawyer normal, has opened an unbiased civil investigation into sexual harassment allegations towards Cuomo, and Saturday’s revelations may intensify stress on the governor to step down of his personal accord.
Already, at the very least one member of New York’s congressional delegation, Rep. Kathleen Rice, has referred to as for Cuomo to resign.
And on Thursday, New York’s Senate Majority Chief, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, indicated that she too would name for Cuomo’s resignation if extra sexual harassment allegations surfaced. Since then, two extra ladies — Liss and Hinton — have gone on the document accusing Cuomo of sexual misconduct.
To date, nevertheless, Cuomo has resisted calls to resign, although he issued an apology of types at a press convention Wednesday.
“I’ve discovered from what has been an extremely tough scenario, for me in addition to different individuals, and I’ve discovered an essential lesson,” Cuomo stated Wednesday. “I’m sorry for no matter ache I precipitated anybody. I by no means meant it, and I would be the higher for this expertise.”
Even when Cuomo does keep in workplace, the current tide of scandals may undercut his political future within the state. He will probably be up for reelection in 2022, if he does select to hunt a fourth time period as New York governor, and as Politico factors out, he would possibly nicely face a tough main to assert the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
“Whether or not he resigns or not, there will probably be no scarcity of candidates in 2022,” one nameless supply informed Politico of Cuomo’s plight. “Donors and consultants have begun reaching out to potential candidates as a result of they see the writing on the wall.”
Lastly, Cuomo’s eventual political destiny may have far broader implications for the Democratic Occasion: As Vox’s Anna North has written, “what occurs subsequent” — whether or not resignation, impeachment, or an eventual main repudiation — “will present how Democrats deal with sexual misconduct allegations towards considered one of their very own greater than three years after the Me Too motion began making headlines.”