Now Sexual Harassment Charges Against Cuomo

 

It appears the takedown of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is in full play. The left is circling. They do eat each other.

First came the scathing report from the state attorney general Letitia James that said it’s likely that the Cuomo administration failed to report thousands of Covid-19 deaths of nursing home residents. James is a Democrat.

Then there was the leaked private conversation with key Democrats where Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, admitted that the administration had not provided state lawmakers with accurate counts of the death toll because of fears over an investigation by the Justice Department under President Trump.

This was followed by Queens assemblyman, Ron T. Kim, a Democrat, telling reporters for The New York Times and CNN that Cuomo had berated him during a call, threatening to publicly tarnish the assemblyman and urging him to issue a statement to change remarks he had made about the nursing home situation.

But Kim did not back down and he reiterated the intimidation story to a national television audience during an appearance on ABC’s “The View.” How the hell did he get on "The View" to attack Cuomo? Did I mention the left is circling?

High-profile lefty Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also called for investigations into the state’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, noting that “thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives.”

And now, we have expanded sexual harassment charges.

A former aide to Cuomo, Lindsay Boylan, on Wednesday published an essay on Medium containing an expanded version of sexual harassment charges she initially made in some tweets in December. In her essay, she now alleges Cuomo kissed her “on the lips” without warning inside his Manhattan office.

Boylan, currently a Democratic candidate for Manhattan borough president, said the incident took place after her 2018 promotion to be Cuomo’s deputy secretary for economic development and special advisor to the governor. A job, she wrote, she initially turned down “because I didn’t want to be near him.”

From the essay:

I’m compelled to tell my story because no woman should feel forced to hide their experiences of workplace intimidation, harassment and humiliation — not by the Governor or anyone else...I had complained to friends that the Governor would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs. His senior staff began keeping tabs on my whereabouts. “He is a sexist pig and you should avoid being alone with him!” my mother texted me on November 4, 2016...

The Governor’s behavior made me nervous, but I didn’t truly fear him until December 2016. Senior State employees gathered at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany to celebrate the holidays and our year’s work. After his remarks, the Governor spotted me in a room filled with hundreds of people waiting to shake his hand. As he began to approach me, I excused myself from coworkers and moved upstairs to a more distant area of the party.

Minutes later, I received a call from an unlisted number. It was the Governor’s body person. He told me to come to the Capitol because the Governor wanted to see me.

I made my way through the underground connection that linked the Plaza to the Capitol. As the black wrought-iron elevator took me to the second floor, I called my husband. I told him I was afraid of what might happen. That was unlike me. I was never afraid.

I exited the elevator to see the body person waiting for me. He walked me down the Hall of Governors. “Are there cameras here?” I asked him. I remembered my mother’s text warning the month before. I worried that I would be left alone with the Governor. I didn’t know why I was there. Or how it would end.

I was escorted into the Governor’s office, past the desks of administrative assistants and into a room with a large table and historical artifacts. The door closed behind me. It was my first time in his Albany office. The Governor entered the room from another door. We were alone.

As he showed me around, I tried to maintain my distance. He paused at one point and smirked as he showed off a cigar box. He told me that President Clinton had given it to him while he served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The two-decade old reference to President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was not lost on me.

The Governor must have sensed my fear because he finally let me out of the office. I tried to rationalize this incident in my head. At least he didn’t touch me. That made me feel safer.

His inappropriate gestures became more frequent. He gave roses to female staffers on Valentine’s Day and arranged to have one delivered to me, the only one on my floor. A signed photograph of the Governor appeared in my closed-door office while I was out. These were not-so-subtle reminders of the Governor exploiting the power dynamic with the women around him...I tried to excuse his behavior. I told myself “it’s only words.” But that changed after a one-on-one briefing with the Governor to update him on economic and infrastructure projects. We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking.

In 2018, I was promoted to Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and Special Advisor to the Governor. I initially turned the job down — not because I didn’t want the responsibility or work but because I didn’t want to be near him. I finally accepted the position at the Governor’s insistence with one requirement — I would keep my old agency office and remain on a separate floor from him and his inner circle.

There does appear to be the ring of truth to her allegations but the timing of her extended disclosures is curious. She is running for Manhattan borough president. One would think that under those circumstances, she would not want to upset the sitting governor, especially since he is also a Democrat.

The lefty sharks smell blood and when they smell blood they attack. It is in their nature. It is what power freaks do.

I don't see how Cuomo survives this. 

-RW

UPDATE

The New York Times is now circling:

On Wednesday, The New York Times spoke to three people who worked in the governor’s office during Ms. Boylan’s time there. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that while they could not corroborate her allegations, they concurred that the governor would sometimes make inappropriate remarks during work and comment on people’s appearances...

Unlike previous crises that Mr. Cuomo has weathered — from the conviction of close associates to his abrupt disbandment of a commission investigating public corruption — the nursing home scandal and reports of his private behavior have begun to spread beyond Albany’s political confines.