How Cuomo threw it all away

 

ERROL LOUIS, NY DAILY NEWS

Watching the slow-motion implosion of Andrew Cuomo’s political career reminds me of the day back in 2015 when he gave me a tour of the second floor of the Capitol in Albany, musing about the place in history he hoped to occupy.

We were walking down the newly renovated Hall of Governors, lined with oil portraits of the 55 men who’d led the state before Cuomo — political giants with names like Roosevelt (Franklin and Teddy), Al Smith, Herbert Lehman, Nelson Rockefeller.

“It’s hard not to walk down this hall and get a palpable sense of the history and that you are a piece of that history,” he told me. “You are working here now, and at one point, there will be a date on the wall that is this date. And what did we accomplish? What did you do? And what have we done that would merit being on that wall?”

NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Even then, Cuomo had racked up achievements that guaranteed him a respectable place on the wall. He’d passed on-time budgets for the first time in years, and maneuvered and cajoled enough Republican lawmakers to pass the landmark law making same-sex marriage legal in New York.

He’d tightened restrictions on firearms with the SAFE Act, and launched the multi-billion-dollar replacement of the decrepit Tappan Zee Bridge with the same rough energy and urgency that’d he brought to the capital itself.

When workmen told Cuomo that the Capitol building — already 10 years into a renovation and filled with noise and scaffolding — would take another seven to complete, Cuomo applied his trademark blend of additional money and personal impatience. The job got done in less than two years.

That same forceful style carried over to major public works like the new Moynihan Station, the opening of the Second Ave. subway, the rebuilding of LaGuardia Airport and more. He even took his show on the road, sending a not-so-small army of public- and private-sector utility workers to Puerto Rico to help with rebuilding the island’s power grid after Hurricane Maria.

“Change is hard. And unless you’re working it every day, you’re not going to win,” he told me. “I understand that it’s a marathon, and I think that change takes time, so you should plan for a longer span. But I think you almost have to run it as if it is a sprint, because it is so hard to make change in this environment.”

The hopeful energy and undeniable accomplishment of those early years is now overshadowed by Cuomo’s disastrous, unforgivable mistreatment of the people around him, especially women. The ugly, abusive behavior cited in the attorney general’s report makes public what had been whispered about in Albany for years: that the second floor of the Capitol was often a snakepit in the Cuomo era, full of secrecy, petty power plays, personal deceit and public humiliation — all aimed at keeping the governor happy or punishing his enemies.

There are literally hundreds of case studies about the disasters that follow when people in an organization get punished for speaking their minds, or when a workplace turns into a competition for the personal approval of a capricious boss.

Cuomo’s top aides often take a perverse pride in their reputation for rudeness and scheming, calling it the price of Getting Things Done. The attorney general’s report makes clear the cost of such delusional thinking.

“I’ve been sexually harassed throughout my career,” the first of Cuomo’s harassment victims to go public, Lindsey Boylan, told investigators, “but not in a way where the whole environment was set up to feed the predator and this and every interaction I had with the governor and the culture felt like it was all to feed the predator.”

Charlotte Bennett, who was harassed by the governor, wrote a note to Boylan that all of Cuomo’s aides should take to heart.

“The verbal abuse, intimidation and living in constant fear were all horribly toxic — dehumanizing and traumatizing. And then he came onto me. I was scared to imagine what would happen if I rejected him, so I disappeared instead,” she wrote. ”My time in public service ended because he was bored and lonely. It still breaks my heart.”

Back in 2015, when Cuomo was showing me the Red Room — later made famous as the site of his pandemic briefings — he paused for a moment at the door. “Every time I touch this doorknob, I just think of all the hands over the years, " he said. “FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Al Smith. Think of all the greats who opened this door.”

Cuomo will soon close the door for the final time, leaving it to the rest of us to reflect on how his administration went from triumphant to toxic — and how we can avoid a repeat of the errors that threaten to cut his career short.

 

 

The gov is down to his final threat: Cuomo plays the victim and tries to wriggle out of another mess

By HARRY SIEGEL DAILY NEWS

Who, me? (Richard Drew/AP)

Gov. Cuomo, who asked Tish James to investigate the claims of the women who say he harassed and touched them, while his inner circle tried to bully them into silence, still thinks he can talk his way out of this now that New York’s attorney general has found their accounts credible and his ridiculous in a damning 165-page report.

And why not? From the Moreland Commission to the conviction of Cuomo family friend and political enforcer Joe Percoco to New York’s worst-in-the-nation virus death toll last year, he’s blustered and stalled his way out of trouble before.

But now a governor who’s always been feared, never loved, is running out of excuses and allies. Two years after he declared “I am the left,” Democrats from President Biden to his own hand-picked state party chair say he’s got to go.

The cynical founder of the Women’s Equality Party has been exposed as a boss who roped women he found attractive into his office and orbit (and the most serious allegations come from women who were on the state payroll) and then came onto them whether they liked it or not, and many did not.

He released a pathetic video in response to James’ report, so he wouldn’t have to answer questions as he looked directly into the camera while insisting he’s a hugger, not a groper, who only pressed women about their sex lives because he cares about them as human beings even as he keeps suggesting his investigators and accusers are motivated by politics.

Who do you think is more motivated by politics, young women in low-level government positions or the three-term governor who literally grew up in the governor’s mansion and presently has no other home?

With 63% of New Yorkers including a plurality of Democrats saying he should resign, Cuomo is down to his final threat: You want me out? Push me out.

I suspect lawmakers will, not because they are so brave and honest but because it’s finally clear that this emperor has no clothes, not even black socks.

After slow-walking impeachment before James’ report dropped, the Assembly is giving Cuomo until the end of this coming week to submit evidence in his defense.

Cuomo and his mouthpieces have had little to say so far about the one new accuser in the AG’s report, a state trooper who the governor briefly met while she was working and immediately decided to add to his protective detail, despite her not having enough time on the job to qualify for that role. When she arrived, she testified he kept hitting on her and touching her inappropriately.

The day after Cuomo signed a sweeping new law he proclaimed would finally end “an ongoing, persistent culture of sexual harassment, assault and discrimination in the workplace,” he asked the trooper why she wasn’t wearing a dress as she drove him to an event. Her commander texted her to keep that quiet: “stays in the truck.”

This is a governor who talks about respecting women in the workplace while he’s pestering women who work for him for sex, pushing many of them away from jobs they otherwise loved.

It turns out that Cuomosexuality is a coerced courtship through exhaustion that’s of a piece with his approach to governing, as anyone who’s spent an hour or many being jawboned by him can vouch.

Meantime, at least five district attorneys are following up on the AG’s report and a criminal complaint was filed on Friday by the assistant who says he put his hand under her blouse while she was working at the executive mansion, which he’s denied. Civil complaints from other accusers are looming, and separate probes into Cuomo’s $5 million virus book and the nursing-home numbers New York reported to the Trump administration are ongoing.

In his grasping video, the alleged groper looked back fondly on his Emmy-winning 2020, when the virus killed at least 38,000 New Yorkers but his ratings were through the roof in Cuomo’s version of Rudy Giuliani’s “a noun, a verb and 9/11” appeal.

“Let’s honor all the women who have suffered this pain and endured this humiliation (and) had the courage to come forward,” Cuomo had said a year earlier when he signed the harassment law he continually violated. “And let’s actually change things.”

That starts with lawmakers calling his bluff and pushing him out if he won’t walk away. Enough with “indispensable” men talking about how I alone can fix it.

N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo Sexually Harassed Multiple Women, State Investigation Finds

 

NPR

Updated August 3, 20211:49 PM ET 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — An investigation found that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in and out of state government and worked to retaliate against one of his accusers, New York's attorney general announced Tuesday in a finding that quickly renewed calls for the Democrat's resignation or impeachment.

Cuomo remained defiant Tuesday following the investigation's findings, saying that "the facts are much different than what has been portrayed" and appearing to reject calls to resign.

The nearly five-month investigation found that Cuomo's administration was a "hostile work environment" and was "rife with fear and intimidation." The probe, conducted by two outside lawyers, involved interviews with 179 people including Cuomo's accusers, current and former administration employees and the governor himself.

Employment lawyer Anne Clark, who led the probe with former U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, said they found 11 accusers to be credible, noting the allegations were corroborated to varying degrees, including by other witnesses and contemporaneous text messages.

"These interviews and pieces of evidence revealed a deeply disturbing yet clear picture: Gov. Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees in violation of federal and state laws," New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a press conference on Tuesday.

NATIONAL

Gov. Cuomo Apologizes For 'Misinterpreted' Comments Amid Sexual Harassment Claims

The investigation's findings, detailed in a 165-page public report, turn up the pressure on the 63-year-old governor, who just a year ago was widely hailed for his steady leadership during the darkest days of the COVID-19 crisis, even writing a book about it.

Since then, he's seen his standing crumble with a drumbeat of harassment allegations, questions in a separate, ongoing inquiry into whether state resources went into writing the book, and the discovery that his administration concealed the true number of nursing home deaths during the outbreak.

Though James' investigation concluded without any referrals to criminal prosecutors, local authorities could decide to use its evidence and findings to mount their own cases. The report is also expected to play an important role in an ongoing inquiry in the state Assembly into whether there are grounds for Cuomo to be impeached.

Several of Cuomo's accusers demanded swifter action, calling on the governor to leave office immediately. Some Democratic and Republican state lawmakers joined them, along with one-time Cuomo allies including county executives and leaders of left-leaning political groups.

"Resign, @NYGovCuomo," accuser Charlotte Bennett tweeted.

NATIONAL

'Embarrassed' Cuomo Apologizes But Won't Resign Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

On at least one occasion, the investigation found, Cuomo and his senior staff worked to retaliate against a former employee who accused him of wrongdoing. Cuomo was also found to have harassed women outside of government, the investigation found.

The report detailed, for the first time, allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed a female state trooper on his security detail. It said that the governor ran his hand or fingers across her stomach and her back, kissed her on the cheek, asked for her help in finding a girlfriend and asked why she didn't wear a dress.

The report also included an allegation from a woman who worked for an energy company who said Cuomo touched her inappropriately at an event. The woman said Cuomo ran his fingers across the lettering on her shirt, reading the name of her company aloud. Then he leaned in and said: "I'm going to say I see a spider on your shoulder," and brushed his hand in between her shoulder and breasts, the report said.

"These brave women stepped forward to speak truth to power and, in doing so, they expressed faith in the belief that although the governor may be powerful, the truth is even more so," Kim said at the press conference.

Cuomo faced multiple allegations last winter that he inappropriately touched and sexually harassed women who worked with him or who he met at public events. One aide in his office said he groped her breast.

NATIONAL

Gov. Cuomo Grants N.Y. AG's Request To Investigate Sexual Harassment Allegations

Another, Lindsey Boylan, said Cuomo kissed her on the lips after a meeting in his office and "would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs."

After Boylan first made her allegations public in December, the Cuomo administration undercut her story by releasing personnel memos to media outlets revealing that Boylan resigned after she was confronted about complaints she belittled and yelled at her staff.

Boylan has said those records "were leaked to the media in an effort to smear me."

Other aides have said that the governor asked them unwelcome personal questions about sex and dating. One former aide, Charlotte Bennett, said Cuomo asked if she was open to sex with an older man.

"Some suffered through unwanted touching, and grabbing of their most intimate body parts. Others suffered through repeated offensive, sexually suggestive, or gender-based comments," Kim said Tuesday. "A number of them endured both. None of them welcomed it. And all of them found it disturbing, humiliating, uncomfortable and inappropriate."

In an 11-hour interview with investigators last month, Cuomo admitted to certain behavior while denying other allegations, investigators said. For example, Clark said, he conceded asking Bennett whether she had been involved with older men and said he may have kissed the state trooper at an event but denied touching her.

Asked about an allegation that he grabbed a woman's breast at the executive mansion, according to the report, Cuomo responded: "I would have to lose my mind to do such a thing" to a woman he hardly knew with multiple staff members around.

Last winter there was a chorus of calls for Cuomo's resignation from many top elected Democrats in New York, including two U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. But Cuomo refused to quit and has been raising money for a fourth term in office.

His position on the allegations has also hardened into one of defiance. Cuomo has always denied touching anyone inappropriately, but he initially said he was sorry if his behavior with women was "misinterpreted as unwanted flirtation." In recent months, he's taken a more combative tack, saying he did nothing wrong and questioning the motives of accusers and critics.

He has also questioned the neutrality of the lawyers hired by the attorney general to investigate the allegations. Kim, was involved in previous investigations of corruption by people in Cuomo's administration when he was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. Cuomo hasn't expressly said why he believes that would make Kim biased.

In the hours leading into James' announcement, Cuomo's office issued numerous press releases including the completion of mixed-use housing in Buffalo plans to build a new $3.9 billion terminal at Kennedy Airport and JetBlue's decision to keep its headquarters in New York. As James was speaking, Cuomo's publicists sent out a release about reclaiming the sites of old power plants.

The Assembly hired its own legal team to investigate Cuomo's conduct, plus other allegations of wrongdoing. The legislature is looking into the help Cuomo got from senior aides to write a book about the pandemic, special access that Cuomo relatives got to COVID-19 testing last year, and the administration's decision to withhold some data on nursing home deaths from the public for several months.

Some members of the judiciary committee have said they expect James' report to be "critical" for the impeachment investigation.

New York state regulations say sexual harassment includes unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature — from unwanted flirtation to sexual jokes — that creates an offensive work environment, regardless of a perpetrator's intent.

The governor, in contrast, has repeatedly argued that he did not intend to harass anyone. His office has said he took the state's mandated sexual harassment training, but has not provided any documentation proving he did.

Cuomo championed a landmark 2019 state law that made it easier for sexual harassment victims to prove their case in court. Alleged victims no longer have to meet the high bar of proving sexual harassment is "severe and pervasive."

• Cuomo’s harassment included non-consensual groping, kissing, hugging, touching, and sexual comments, and he retaliated against at least one woman. Overall, the harassment created a culture of fear enforced by Cuomo and his aides. [The New York Times / Luis Ferré-Sadurní and William K. Rashburn]
• The report contains specific stories of abuse of office, such as instructing aides to bend rules to hire a state trooper as a member of his security detail, touching her on her stomach and hip, and running his finger down her spine while saying, “Hey you.” [The Hill / Tal Axelrod]