Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would resign amid allegations of sexual harrassment by 11 women. Another woman has come forward since then with similar allegations. According to an explosive investigation into the allegations by the New York Attorney General’s office, the governor’s office was a “hostile work environment for women” in which he sexually harassed several current and former employees over years.

For an elected leader who has seemingly prided himself on standing with women and signing into law important bills like the 2019 Reproductive Health Act, a key component of his 2019 Justice Agenda – as well as legislation in later that year to to beef up sexual harassment protections for women in the workplace. This is bad optics, at the very least, for an elected leader.

It’s good he decided to step down (though not for 14 days from the time he made the announcement), right?

According to the New York Attorney General office’s investigation report:

In an instance involving one of Cuomo’s unnamed executive assistants, the governor was found to have “reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast.”

The same woman also recounted a circumstance in which “the governor moved his hand to grab her butt cheek and began to rub it. The rubbing lasted at least five seconds.”

Governor Cuomo responded,

“I take full responsibility for my actions. I have been too familiar with people. My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting. I do hug and kiss people casually — women and men. I have done it all my life,” Cuomo said.

“In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone. But I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn,” he said. “And I should have. No excuses.”

Okay, so you’re a hug-and-kiss man, Governor; you say it’s what you’ve done all your life, what your parents taught you, what Italians do (kiss on both sides of the cheek). But apparently you don’t have a sense of boundaries – of when to stop making contact with others, like inappropriately touching women’s bodies without their consent.

All the good you have done for New Yorkers through signing of landmark laws for greater equality for women, workers, and the LGBTQ community, as well as guiding New York in the first weeks of the pandemic, will now be overshadowed by these serious allegations of sexual misconduct.

Publicly championing the rights of women and others doesn’t excuse your despicable behavior. Other men on the left have been called to accountability for sexual harassment or misconduct and resigned: former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman; former Senator Al Franken of Minnesota; and former Representative Anthony Weiner of New York, thanks to his sexting to multiple women – at least one who received an unsolicited photo of his junk and the same to a minor – for which he went to federal prison for 21 months and had to register as a sex offender. Those are just a few to name; how many others are there whose sense of entitlement and lack of respect for women caused harm to others?

Having political power does not entitle you to have limitless access to other people’s bodies to make you feel good, Governor Cuomo.

How do you think YOU would feel if a powerful elected official groped your wife, daughter, son, relative, or friend, or better yet – yourself, just because he (or she) felt like it?

And then you or your loved one are told by the perpetrator’s henchman (or henchwoman) to keep your trap door shut about the violation? And if you choose not to stay silent, your perpetrator publicly gaslights you by telling investigators that you processed what you heard through your own filter, and that it was “often not what was said and not what was meant”.

Y’know what Governor? There’s probably many other people who share your political beliefs who DO NOT inappropriately touch others without their permission or make lewd comments and who have the necessary experience and skills to run for office .

The same can be said for politicians on the right who have been accused of sexual misconduct, such as, of course – our former President “Grab them by the pussy” Trump, no less.

However, because you’ve championed women’s rights and signed laws to support more than half of America’s population, your actions are particularly egregious.

To my mind, the only way forward is for you to be held accountable for every complaint made against you. The women who have accused you of inappropriately touching them and making lewd comments to them deserve to be heard.

That’s 12 women who’ve now come forward. Are there more? The NY AG’s investigation interviewed 179 witnesses and reviewed 74,000 items including emails and texts. That sounds like they mean serious business.

“I do it with everyone,” you said in response to the testimony of one of the 11 women, Anna Ruch, who testified that she felt “distraught and uncomfortable” at a 2019 wedding party when you (whom she says had never met), cupped her face in your hands and said: “May I kiss you?”

As CNN’s Chris Cillizza observed, “‘I do it with everyone’ is an interesting defense of sexually inappropriate behavior.”

Sounds like disrespect toward Ms. Ruch to me. And entitlement – reaching out (literally!) to any young woman who strikes your fancy.

Reports have you responding to the accounts of your accusers with a potpourri of outright denial, appeals to failing memory, suggestions that the women had “misunderstood” your actions, and darker insinuations that they and the investigators were motivated by political or other animosity towards you.

Making defiant denials, gaslighting your accusers, and appealing to a myriad of excuses is not leadership.

I’m glad and relieved you stepped down. You’ve potentially left a painful mark on the lives of 12 women – something they’ll have to live with for the rest of their lives. They consented to do their jobs, not to be your plaything.

And to anyone dissing the governor’s accusers with lame comments like “the women just want the money” or “the women just want their 15 minutes of fame” or belittling them with name-calling, I ask you:

Just TRY imagining for a moment if someone in a position of power put their hands on your ass, your junk, or your breasts without your consent. Would you enjoy it? You’d have to live with that moment of violation forever.

Likewise, how do you think you’d feel if a powerful elected official violated your loved one? Would you start blaming your loved one for how she dressed or where she was? Or would you focus on the perpetrator and seek justice for your loved one?

Think about it.

Sources

MSN
State of New York, Office of the Attorney General
NBC
The New York Times
The Guardian
CNN
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo – The Reproductive Health Act
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo – Legislation to Protect the Rights of New York’s Working Men and Women
Wikipedia -Anthony Weiner
Salon
LegalMatch
News 12 Connecticut