Government characterization Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment he has accused of inflicting on employees as simply “being playful” and making “jokes” fell on Monday, with one of his accusers and Mayor Bill de Blasio repressing the “do not apologize.”
Cuomo, 63, offered the dubious defense on Sunday, a day after Charlotte Bennett became the second ex-staff in a matter of days to accuse the governor of sexual harassment in the workplace.
“As we know, abusers, particularly those with a huge amount of power, are often repeat offenders who engage in manipulative tactics to reduce allegations, blame victims, deny illegal actions and escape the consequences,” he said. said Bennett, 25, in a scathing statement Monday.
“The governor needed 24 hours and a significant reaction to allow for a truly independent investigation,” Bennett continued. “It’s not the actions of someone who just feels misunderstood; they are the actions of an individual who exercises his power to prevent justice. “
Bennett told the New York Times in a piece published Saturday that last year Cuomo made a series of out-of-color comments and asked questions about her sex life, leaving her convinced that the divorced father of three “wanted sleep with her “.
When bipartisan outrage escalated, Cuomo issued the prepared statement on Sunday, dismissing his behavior as “jokes” that could be interpreted as “unwanted flirting,” while denying any inappropriate intent and maintaining that he never touched. nobody inappropriately.
On Monday, de Blasio mocked the response of his frequent political rival.
“The governor issued a total apology earlier and in fact treated the sexual harassment as a kind of laugh,” Hizzoner told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s not a joke. It’s a very, very serious thing.
“When I read the story of what happened to Charlotte Bennett, I was horrified,” Blasio continued. “Here’s someone who can determine if he had a job or not, if he has a career or not, literally suggesting to him all sorts of perverse sexual possibilities, and he’s alone in a room with him. Think about how grotesque he is.”
Asked if he believed Cuomo should resign if the allegations are true, de Blasio said yes.
“If you’ve sexually harassed young women at work … how can anyone look you in the face after that?” he asked. “If these allegations are proven, there is no way to govern.”
Bennett spoke less than a week after another former aide, Lindsey Boylan, 36, wrote a half-piece alleging that Cuomo kissed her on the lips without warning and suggested they go on a flight playing poker. .
State Attorney General Letitia James received the formal green light from the Cuomo administration on Monday to launch an independent investigation into the bomb allegations.
“This is not a responsibility we take lightly, as allegations of sexual harassment should always be taken seriously,” James said. “As the letter states, at the end of the review, the findings will be revealed in a public report.”
Under state law, James on Sunday morning called for a “referral” to the governor’s office to investigate, only for Beth Garvey, Cuomo’s special attorney, to try to haggle over the process.
Garvey suggested that James could work in conjunction with the highest state appeal, Judge Janet DiFiore, appointed by Cuomo, to agree on an independent investigator.
But in the face of intense bipartisan pressure for a truly independent investigation to continue its course, Garvey relented on Sunday afternoon and agreed to grant James the referral.
And Cuomo’s interactions with the women underwent a more detailed examination Monday.
“I want to see you eating all the sausage,” Cuomo told female journalist Beth Cefalu during a reductive exchange as they teased at the 2016 New York State Fair, the video resurfaced on Twitter.
Then Cuomo invited Cefalu to sit at his table and sit down to take a selfie, where the creepy one-liners kept coming.
“There’s too much sausage in this picture,” Cuomo said, making other people at the table laugh.
Cefalu, however, clarified Monday that the exchange did not bother her.
“I wasn’t pressured / harassed, it’s about two people enjoying the same event, the New York fair, which gives them a little more freedom to be informal,” he tweeted. “It’s very sad that it becomes something more.”
However, another member of the New York press corps stated that he left the industry due, in part, to the “harassing” behavior of the governor’s office.
Lindsay Nielsen, formerly of Albany-based News 10 ABC, posted on Twitter on Sunday that the governor’s office responded to critical coverage with “incessant bullying” during its stint at the 2012-2017 season.
“They would do it personally, claiming I have this personal vendetta against the governor, which is absolutely false,” Nielsen told The Post on Monday. “All I’ve tried to do is report the story, report the facts.”
Additional reports by Bruce Golding and Natalie Musumeci