Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, Emmy Award winner, author, and alleged serial sexual harasser is running out of friends – and, possibly, out of time. If the multiple allegations leveled against him are to be believed then one must ask the question: is there anyone who works – or has worked – for the state of New York that hasn’t been either bullied or harassed by him?
When you are one of the most prominent Democrats in the country, and the most well-known newspaper in Washington – a paper that, hitherto, existed for the sole purpose of buttering up Democrats and bashing Republicans – comes after you, then you’ve got serious problems. The paper in question, on Saturday evening, broke the news that two more female former aides are claiming that Cuomo’s behavior towards them was, shall we say, inappropriate. But there’s more. Two men who also worked in Cuomo’s office have accused him of bullying and verbally abusing them.
They claim that “he routinely berated them with explicit language, making comments such as calling them ‘pu–ies’ and saying ‘you have no b-lls.'”
The most serious of the latest accusations, however, comes from Karen Hinton, who worked for Cuomo when he was in charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Technically, she was a consultant for the agency and, according to what she told the newspaper, Cuomo “summoned her to his dimly-lit hotel room and embraced her… ” This encounter allegedly took place in 2000. Hinton says she resisted, and Cuomo pulled her back toward him before she left the room.
Can We Enjoy Cuomo’s Fall?
It has become de rigueur to state that everybody accused of a crime or of unacceptable behavior is entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. If the act in question was criminal, then the accused is entitled to due process under the law. Of course, such rights are never extended to Republicans, who are immediately branded guilty by their political opponents and by the media. Every member of Andrew Cuomo’s party, both in New York and in Washington, D.C., should now be demanding his immediate resignation.
Of course, it is simply naive to believe even for one moment that Democrats, or any of their media sock puppets, will condemn Cuomo for his alleged behavior as strongly as they condemned Brett Kavanaugh. Cynical as it may sound, those Democrats who are now indeed demanding that Cuomo resign are likely doing so more out of political expediency than out of disgust for the behavior of which he is accused.
While, obviously, there is nothing amusing about sexual harassment and less so is there anything funny about sexual assault, conservatives and Republicans can be forgiven for affording themselves a snicker at Cuomo’s expense. One does not have to work in his office – but only see him on television – to know that he presents as insufferably arrogant, and apparently bereft of any civility or class whatsoever. His tenure as governor has been unfortunate, to say the least, for the people of the state of New York and his handling of the pandemic – once lauded, for some strange reason – has been nothing short of disastrous and, in several thousand cases, lethal.
If his many accusers are telling the truth then they deserve our sympathy. Nobody on the political right, however, should feel even a twinge of guilt for allowing their schadenfreude to show through as Cuomo’s political career inevitably spirals into the abyss.
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Read more from Graham J. Noble.
