Cuomo Won’t Resign: ‘Never Done Anything in My Public Career That I Have Been Ashamed Of’
Lindsey Boylan, who first accused Cuomo of sexual harassment: “How can New Yorkers trust you @NYGovCuomo to lead our state if you ‘don’t know’ when you’ve been inappropriate with your own staff?”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologized profusely over the sexual harassment allegations against him, but he said he will not resign:
“I wasn’t elected by politicians, I was elected by the people of the state of New York. I’m not going to resign,” he said.
“I work for the people of the state of New York. They elected me and I’m going to serve the people of the state of New York.”
During a video news conference from the Capitol in Albany, Cuomo insisted, “I never touched anyone inappropriately” and pledged to cooperate with an independent investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James.
Cuomo also said he was acting against legal advice to tell New Yorkers, “I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: "I am not going to resign. I work for the people of the State of New York. They elected me and I'm going to serve the people of the State of New York." https://t.co/q1Pk3Tey0A pic.twitter.com/ALFsvfbFgr
— The Hill (@thehill) March 3, 2021
“I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional, and I truly and deeply apologize for it … I never touched anyone inappropriately.”
— Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) on sexual harassment allegations against himpic.twitter.com/8F5Sluauor
— The Recount (@therecount) March 3, 2021
Cuomo never touched anyone inappropriately? Lindsey Boylan, the first woman who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, wrote (emphasis mine):
I tried to excuse his behavior. I told myself “it’s only words.” But that changed after a one-on-one briefing with the Governor to update him on economic and infrastructure projects. We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking.
I left past the desk of Stephanie Benton. I was scared she had seen the kiss. The idea that someone might think I held my high-ranking position because of the Governor’s “crush” on me was more demeaning than the kiss itself.
Anna Ruch told The New York Times (emphasis mine):
She recalled Mr. Cuomo moving his hand to the small of her back — exposed in an open-back dress — within moments of their being introduced and shaking hands at the reception.
Ms. Ruch said that touch, on her bare skin, discomfited her. “I promptly removed his hand with my hand, which I would have thought was a clear enough indicator that I was not wanting him to touch me,” she said.
Instead, Ms. Ruch said, Mr. Cuomo called her “aggressive” and placed his hands on her cheeks.
“He said, ‘Can I kiss you?’” Ms. Ruch said. “I felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed when really he is the one who should have been embarrassed.” (A friend captured the exchange in a series of photographs taken on Ms. Ruch’s cellphone.)
Shaken, Ms. Ruch said, she later had to ask a friend if Mr. Cuomo’s lips had made contact with her face as she pulled away. The governor had kissed her cheek, she was told.
“It’s the act of impunity that strikes me,” Ms. Ruch said. “I didn’t have a choice in that matter. I didn’t have a choice in his physical dominance over me at that moment. And that’s what infuriates me. And even with what I could do, removing his hand from my lower back, even doing that was not clear enough.”
Cuomo apologized but brushed aside the harassment claims because touching and kissing are his family’s way of greeting other people.
My family is Italian. We greet family members and the closest of friends that way, especially kissing on the cheek.
Asked by @MKramerTV about photo in which he’s touching Anna Ruch’s face, @NYGovCuomo says: “You can find hundreds of pictures of me making the same gesture with hundreds of people: women, men, children, etc… It is my usual, customary way of greeting.” He says his father’s also. https://t.co/HQOHBewDVN
— Andrew Donovan (@AndrewDonovan) March 3, 2021
BREAKING: Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologizes for any touching that made people feel uncomfortable, but says, "It was my father's way of greeting people." pic.twitter.com/5GgglqH4fl
— Forbes (@Forbes) March 3, 2021
Cuomo claimed he is not ashamed of anything he has done in his political career. But I thought he said that the accusations “embarrassed” him and he feels “awful.” How about the nursing home death scandal?
“I have never done anything in my public career that I have been ashamed of.” – Andrew Cuomo pic.twitter.com/bECc4zUDA0
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) March 3, 2021
Reaction
Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to tell her story, responded to Cuomo on Twitter:
How can New Yorkers trust you @NYGovCuomo to lead our state if you “don’t know” when you’ve been inappropriate with your own staff?
— Lindsey Boylan (@LindseyBoylan) March 3, 2021
Debra Katz represents Charlotte Bennett, the second woman who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment. Katz said Cuomo filled his press conference with “falsehoods and inaccurate information.”
Katz reminded everyone that Bennett “reported his sexually harassing behavior immediately to his Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel.”
“We are confident that they made him aware of her complaint and we fully expect that the Attorney General’s investigation will demonstrate that Cuomo administration officials failed to act on Mrs. Bennett’s serious allegations or to ensure that corrective measures were taken, in violation of their legal requirements,” continued Katz.
Debra Katz, attorney for accuser Charlotte Bennett, released this statement in response to Cuomo’s press conference: https://t.co/2NlbKBmLwS pic.twitter.com/eziUiOMYOm
— Sonia Moghe (@soniamoghe) March 3, 2021
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Comments
Good, he shouldn’t resign because of this. He should resign because of the 1,000s of elderly he killed through negligent manslaughter and depraved indifference to human life.
And if Dems want him gone, they need to come to grips with that. No easy way out.
PS- I hope the women get whatever justice they deserve, And Cuomo is entitled to defend himself from their allegations. That’s our justice system.
But 1,000s dead have relatives who deserve their day of reckoning with Cuomo. That’s the bigger miscarriage of justice that Dems are trying to ignore.
Precisely. Why is he fake-weeping over #MeToo charges that are pretty lame and not over the thousands of deaths he ordered in NY nursing homes?
Facing an abstract he said/she said #MeToo charge is preferable to the concrete charge of placing covid patients in nursing homes. It is also preferable to democrats because one might get the idea they are indifferent to human life at any age.
Because of ALL the other Democratic Govs who did the same thing and are just as culpable in murdering our loved ones
Where the hell is the Republican party in NY? Not a peep out of those bums.
Why would they be silent? Blackmail?
Perhaps the insiders have directed the NY GOPe to be silent and let the insiders work this as part of the post election fraud “clean up” activities. Were not the supporters of the French Revolution disposed of after their utility became a risk?
I agree.
“‘Never Done Anything in My Public Career That I Have Been Ashamed Of’”
For once he is telling the truth, admitting that he is such a sleaze bag that he is not bothered by those people’s deaths.
‘Never Done Anything in My Public Career That I Have Been Ashamed Of”
That’s only because he has no shame.
And no morals or ethics.
Correct.
Andrews morally lacking father, he of the ‘I don’t believe in abortion for me but I’m not stopping anybody else’ fame failed as a father to help his sons form a moral conscience.
His boys went to Yale because daddy was Governor of New York.
Actually by loosening restrictions on abortion he was encouraging abortion by giving state approval.
I’m sure Genghis Khan, Attila, and Idi Amin could all say the same with perfect honesty.
May be an intentional distraction. Investigating this may allow the AG to avoid investigating the murders.
Alternatively, it may have been intended to give Cuomo an easy way out of office, without the “murderer” title. But like a brainless bulldog, or somebody with lots of cards left to play, he can’t take a hint and fights this as if it’s the real issue.
Popcorn time…please go scorched earth and expose all the bad people that exposed you, Cuomo.
Cuomo is simply a Neandrewthal.
Fredo’s response: “Hey I killed a lot of grannies–but nobody is coming after me for than. Now those pesky Feds may tell you that I was lying about the numbers, but what do they know? And as for those beeyotches that are complaining about me, well I know that they really wanted my fugly bod. So where’s the harm they suffered?”
Yup Fredo–nothing to ashamed about. Especially if somebody surgically removed your sense of shame at birth.
One must first have a conscience before they can feel shame.
He married one of the stupidest Kennedys ever to breathe with two nostrils, bred himself to her, and has no public shame?
Haha, even Larry Flynt must have known some public shame. And let’s not even get started on Jimmy Carter, Cronkite, Castro or Dan Rather.
Bill Clinton broke this trail for him.
Given the family’s history with lobotomies, that’s a pretty high bar.
The Ralph Northam strategy: I did nothing wrong, and you can’t make me quit, and you really don’t want me gone enough to actually do anything to remove me, and in a few weeks (if not days) you will be fawning over me again.
So, if he’s never done anything wrong why did he say he will apologize today and again tomorrow?
Because he knows his apologies are not really apologies, and never will be.
They’re Janet Reno apologies. “I take full responsibility for burning all those children to death at Waco. Now, it’s time America moved on.”
No conscience, no shame, no class,no regrets.
“Never Done Anything in My Public Career That I Have Been Ashamed Of”
Beat your conscience into silence and that is an easy statement to make. It is even easier if you have no conscience. And, to even make such a statement, one must have very low emotional intelligence IQ. Even a psychopath knows how to be charming.
He is just a garden-variety bully who is a governor because of his political connections.
Why would frog face resign? If that cadaver, who disgraces our White House, can get away with the same thing, why not Cuomo? Oh, and by the way, Cuomo, in order for one to be ashamed over one’s actions, one needs a conscience. ‘Nuff said.
Churchill once said that Americans could always be counted on to do the right thing once all other alternatives are exhausted. I think he meant democrats.