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Who the hell gropes a state trooper? How far up your own ass do you have to be to think that's an acceptable way for anyone, much less the highest public official in the state of New York, to behave? And then to send the COVID vaccine czar out to make sure county executives won't publicly call for your resignation once the news of your vile behavior starts to leak out?
Dirrrrrrrrrty.
This morning, New York state Attorney General Letitia James held a press conference that should end Governor Andrew Cuomo's career. Flanked by former acting head of the Southern District of New York Joon Kim and employment lawyer Anne L. Clark, James intoned somberly, "I believe these women."
From the podium and in a simultaneously released report , the team laid out allegations by 11 current and former state employees detailing a pattern of sexual touching and comments by the governor, covered up and abetted by staff in his Executive Chamber.
Based on the investigation, and as set forth in greater detail below, we reach the conclusion that the Governor sexually harassed a number of State employees through unwelcome and unwanted touching, as well as by making numerous offensive and sexually suggestive comments. We also conclude that such behavior by the Governor was part of a pattern that extended to his interactions with women outside of State government, and was enabled and facilitated by a culture within the Executive Chamber of secrecy, loyalty to the Governor, and fear, as well as the normalization of inappropriate comments and interactions by the Governor. Finally, we conclude that the Executive Chamber's response to a number of the sexual harassment allegations violated its internal policies and that its response to one complainant's sexual harassment allegation constituted unlawful retaliation.
Cuomo's senior staff, many of whom are women, worked hard to protect their boss and maintain "a culture of fear, intimidation, and retribution" which "normalized everyday flirtations and gender-based comments by the Governor." As one woman told investigators, Cuomo was so vindictive and abusive that it was seen as an advantage if he found a female employee attractive, because she might get yelled at less:
[F]or whatever reason, in his office the rules were different. It was just, you should view it as a compliment if the Governor finds you aesthetically pleasing enough, if he finds you interesting enough to ask questions like that. And so even though it was strange and uncomfortable and technically not permissible in a typical workplace environment, I was in this mindset that it was the twilight zone and . . . the typical rules did not apply.
Cuomo's enforcers even went so far as to leak one former employee's confidential personnel files and circulate a letter attacking her among several high ranking Democrats.
Following Ms. Boylan's public allegation of sexual harassment against the Governor in December 2020 (at a time when she was running for public office), the Governor and the Executive Chamber actively engaged in an effort to discredit her, including by disseminating to the press confidential internal documents that painted her in a negative light and circulating among a group of current and former Executive Chamber employees (although not ultimately publishing) a proposed op-ed or letter disparaging Ms. Boylan that the Governor personally participated in drafting.
The report itself is full of nasty details, including the governor constantly hugging and kissing women, even putting his hand up an assistant's shirt to grab her breast, and rubbing a state trooper's back and belly and trying to kiss her after he'd spotted the officer at an event and requested that she be put on his personal security detail.
When the Governor reached Ms. Limmiatis, he ran two fingers across her chest, pressing down on each of the letters as he did so and reading out the name of the Energy Company as he went. The Governor then leaned in, with his face close to Ms. Limmiatis's cheek, and said, "I'm going to say I see a spider on your shoulder," before brushing his hand in the area between her shoulder and breasts (and below her collarbone).
He even tried to discredit a sexual assault survivor on his staff whom he asked about her views on monogamy and interest in dating older men by saying that the complainant "processed what she heard through her own filter," and that "it was often not what was said and not what was meant."
In short, this is some nasty Mad Men shit, and the guy needs to GTFO yesterday, which is why state officials are running not walking away from him right now, joining Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who both called for his resignation months ago.
In any rational world, Cuomo would resign immediately. And take his brother Chris Cuomo with him, since the CNN anchor seems to have played a substantial role in crafting the filthy PR strategy once women started coming forward with accusations.
But this is not a rational world, so instead the governor convened a press conference to deride the AG's investigation as a WITCH HUNT. Never mind that Cuomo himself deputized James to do the investigation, perhaps believing that she might be persuaded to go easy on a political ally. But if that was his expectation, Cuomo appears to have drastically misjudged James, and finding himself backed into a corner, he's now going full Trump.
He's even got his own "Grab 'em by the pussy" video :
Incredible moment as Cuomo displays face-touching slideshow: “I do it with everyone. Black and white, young and old… https://t.co/p60GBpwpyU
— Jessy Han (@Jessy Han) 1628010905.0
If we have understood the governor correctly, he seems to be suggesting that his father groped everyone, his mother groped everyone, he gropes everyone, and anyone who complains is racist against Italians, who talk with their hands and kiss everyone on the lips.
Also it is sexist to attack women in his senior leadership for being hard chargers, and a culture of abuse and intimidation is good, actually.
And now he's learned that not everyone likes discussing their sex lives with their boss and sitting on his lap at government events, he'll do better going forward. So, we're all good now?
HAHA, FUCK YOU. GET OUT.
And PS, we never want to hear another word from Republicans about dOuBlE sTaNdArD for Dems. Because the Blue Team takes out its goddamn trash.
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Andrew Cuomo, GET THE FUCK OUT!
i hope you're right and i will be HAPPY to wrong in this case.
Throw the guy out of office. He's a pig. Men sexually harass to feel powerful. Any woman with a pulse can recall instances of sexual harassment so I can only conclude many men feel their egos need a daily boost since this crap has occurred from my Grandmother's time to now. When I started my first job my mother ran down a list of crap men will pull at work. Sure enough she was right as always.