Hard-left Democrats are abandoning New York Governor Andrew Cuomo because of the credible accusations that he harassed three women and, perhaps, assaulted two of them.
Failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose own husband faced a credible accusation of rape, says Cuomo’s victims deserve hearing. So did Representatives Jerry Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and leftist New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the allegations credible.
Cuomo’s been in trouble since December, when a former state employee, Lindsey Boylan, tweeted about her experiences with the pushy governor. She wrote about them on Medium.com last week, and on Saturday and Monday, the New York Times published two more accounts from women, one of them 38 years Cuomo’s junior.
The Latest
“These stories are difficult to read, and the allegations brought forth raise serious questions that the women who have come forward and all New Yorkers deserve answers to,” Clinton told Fox News. “I’m glad to see that there will be a full, independent, and thorough investigation.”
Yet Clinton, a former senator from New York, isn’t the only Empire State powerhouse who thinks the accusations are credible.
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“Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett’s detailed accounts of sexual harassment by Gov. Cuomo are extremely serious and painful to read,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted after the Times published a story about Cuomo’s grooming the 25-year-old Bennett:
There must be an independent investigation — not one led by an individual selected by the Governor, but by the office of the Attorney General.
De Blasio was even harsher.
“It sickened me, it sickened me,” he told a radio station in New York:
The thought of a powerful man trying to take advantage of his power, intimidate a young woman and just the sense that he was treating her like — again these are allegations and we need a full investigation — but if that was what truly happened it was like he was treating her like she was his property. Just disgusting, creepy.
“Sexual harassment is not funny,” he continued, “Who the hell tries to explain that by saying I was just joking around?”
In admitting but excusing the harassment, Cuomo said all the sexual banter and touching were innocent flirting that the women “misinterpreted.”
The women say they didn’t misinterpret anything, but anyway, de Blasio also called out Cuomo for his abusive, bullying behavior, such as the nasty threats to Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim that brought Kims’ wife to tears.
“I’ve seen him be abusive in a way that would not be accepted by anyone in leadership,” de Blasio said.
Tweeted Kim, “Andrew Cuomo is a coward who has abused his position of power. Young women are bravely holding the floodlight with their truths. To my colleagues in Albany — how much longer will you wait in the dark?”
Nadler said the allegations are “deeply troubling and deserve a thorough investigation,” a sentiment that Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) retweeted.
“The women who have come forward with serious and credible charges against Governor Cuomo deserve to be heard and to be treated with dignity,” Pelosi told Fox News. “The independent investigation must have due process and respect for everyone involved.”
Three Accusers
The Democrats are jumping ship because three women have accused Cuomo of predatory harassment and what might be assault.
Former state employee Lindsey Boylan says Cuomo blocked her from leaving his office and kissed her. Boylan is married and has kids. “Let’s play strip poker,” Cuomo said to Boylan on a plane flight.
Anna Ruch said Cuomo touched her bare back and forcibly kissed her at a wedding reception.
Charlotte Bennett accused Cuomo of grooming with demented questions about a sexual assault she suffered. He also asked her if she had sex with older men, and that he would take any woman over 22. Cuomo is 63.
Bennett, 25, played soccer against Cuomo’s daughter.
