Former Cuomo Aide Accuses Him of Sexual Harassment, Alleges His Female Staffers Normalized His Behavior
Karen Hinton, Cuomo’s former press secretary at HUD, also wrote about his domineering attitude over women.
Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has accused him of sexual harassment during her time in his office between 2015 and 2018.
Boylan’s post comes out as a former employee to Cuomo, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote about her time with the two men.
Lindsey Boylan
Boylan tweeted out the accusations in December and claimed his administration tried to discredit her.
She admitted they would probably do it again, but strengthened her case with screenshots of emails and texts.
Cuomo made Boylan uneasy from their first meeting in January 2016:
My boss soon informed me that the Governor had a “crush” on me. It was an uncomfortable but all-too-familiar feeling: the struggle to be taken seriously by a powerful man who tied my worth to my body and my appearance.
Stephanie Benton, Director of the Governor’s Offices, told me in an email on December 14, 2016 that the Governor suggested I look up images of Lisa Shields — his rumored former girlfriend — because “we could be sisters” and I was “the better looking sister.” The Governor began calling me “Lisa” in front of colleagues. It was degrading.
But it was a reference to a cigar box in December 2016 that sparked fear in Boylan:
I was escorted into the Governor’s office, past the desks of administrative assistants and into a room with a large table and historical artifacts. The door closed behind me. It was my first time in his Albany office. The Governor entered the room from another door. We were alone.
As he showed me around, I tried to maintain my distance. He paused at one point and smirked as he showed off a cigar box. He told me that President Clinton had given it to him while he served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The two-decade old reference to President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was not lost on me.
The Governor must have sensed my fear because he finally let me out of the office. I tried to rationalize this incident in my head. At least he didn’t touch me. That made me feel safer.
Boylan received her promotion to deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo in 2018, but only accepted if she could keep her old office and stay on a different floor.
Boylan also listed the disgusting behavior towards her and other women:
- Roses to females on Valentine’s Day
- Sent her a bouquet, the only one on her floor.
- Signed picture in her closed-door office
- Unflattering comments about females’ weight
- Made fun of their love lives
Then one day, Cuomo kissed Boylan on the lips. That was the last straw, and she began to speak up for herself.
But Boylan defending herself caused a rift within her senior team. The women “grew hostile” while aides told her “to get in line.”
Boylan could not believe that his top female aides, including secretary Melissa DeRosa, normalized his behavior.
Recently, Cuomo has shown his bullying side after a report came out of DeRosa apologizing to Democratic lawmakers for fudging the nursing home death numbers.
Anyone who has come out against him, especially Assemblyman Ron Kim, has received harsh tongue-lashings from Cuomo. He ignores The New York Post, makes snide remarks about others, blames everyone but himself for his failed policies, etc.
De Blasio described it as typical Cuomo bullying.
Boylan said that two women talked to her after her tweets in December. Will more women come forward?
Karen Hinton
Karen Hinton worked as a press secretary for Cuomo when he worked in HUD and the same position for de Blasio.
Hinton wrote:
The recent spate of stories about Gov. Cuomo’s penchant for bullying isn’t about behavior that’s unusual in politics. It’s the norm. Andrew, with whom I had a decades-long professional relationship, isn’t the only practitioner of what I call “penis politics.” He just happens to be the master of the art, a subject I am writing a book about.
In Washington, he’d given me a job in 1995 and then worked to undermine me in it. Day to day, he made me feel as if I were no good at my job and thus totally dependent on him to keep it. In Cuomo’s world — and he would never admit this even to himself — working for him is like a 1950′s version of marriage. He always, always, always comes first. Everyone and everything else — your actual spouse, your children, your own career goals — is secondary. Your focus 24 hours a day is on him.
If you need more time with your own family, he will treat you like you are cheating on him. If you have your eye on another, better job, he’ll try to make that job disappear. Escaping Cuomo is tough because he has to exercise total control.
Cuomo once told her that she couldn’t “lead the public affairs office for him” because she “had only worked for a ‘Black man from a small town in Mississippi.'”
Racist much? It didn’t matter to him that the “Black man” was Mike Epsy. He made history as the “first Black congressman from Mississippi since Reconstruction.”
De Blasio was no better as a boss:
Mayor de Blasio, for whom I also worked and knew for 25 years, both at HUD and as New York City mayor, practices a different brand of penis politics. His charming, easygoing personality he had when we worked together in the federal government gave way to a hectoring, inflexible approach that bordered on sanctimony when I was his press secretary at City Hall.
His signature move as mayor was to dig in on an untenable position against the advice of staff, raising the cost of an inevitable defeat. Discussions with staff were marked by condescension, leaving the female staffers feeling especially marginalized. It made for an uncomfortable work environment.
Here’s the mic drop. It shouldn’t shock anyone that Bill Clinton is involved:
Silence and penis politics often go hand in hand. In 1998 at HUD, I spoke up about a clumsy pick-up attempt Bill Clinton made on me when I was a 26-year-old campaign operative and he was governor of Arkansas. It cost me a Senate-confirmed appointment when Cuomo quietly had the White House pull my nomination. It was penis politics again in 2015, when Cuomo and his “sources” threw bombs at me (and for a while, I threw them back) and then again when de Blasio made it impossible for me to do my job by invalidating what I said to the press on his behalf.
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Comments
Ok so it’s clear they want Cuomo to go down bigtime. Otherwise, why pull this out now?
But who is the “progressive” waiting in the wings?
Bingo. That’s all this is about. It’s an opportunity for a coup, and replacement of the somewhat mild lunatic with a raging leftist lunatic.
This is a prelude to getting rid of biden and getting the ‘Ho into office – after which she’ll be booted out to make way for Pelosi.
Yup, this is Democrat blood in the water. Authentic or bottled, make no difference. Arkansharks on the way as we speak.
Mzzz Blasey-Ford, call your office.
Arkansharks. I love that.
Looks like the Left is serious about getting rid of Como. The Me Too flood gates are now open.
Say the name: Ashli Babbitt!
I hated Me Too then and I will hate it now.
Signed,
A Woman
Same here, unless there’s a contemporaneous police report, but I’m willing to make an exception for the guv.
Uh, oh!
What did Cuomo do to piss DEM off?
When they completed the steal for Buyden*, Fredo and his stupidity became too much of a liability.
It was a steal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnKLwcqCJAk
What is this “domineering attitude toward women” nonsense?
The governor of New York has a reputation for yelling at all kinds of people. Seriously, duckduckgo “cuomo yelling” and see how many kinds of stories surface.
In this story, he yells at a man.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/2356852/fbi-investigating-cuomo-nursing-home-covid-scandal-democrat/
Why should it be worse to yell at a woman?
The guy is a jerk toward people he can abuse. That, in and of itself is minor, compared to the reason why he is losing it, now: He killed grandma, and on that basis, he should be removed from office.
For 30 years sexual harassment has been a resume enhancement for the left.
Usually, though to seems a convenient way to get rid of those who have become too much of a liability. I’ll bet Harvey Weinstein never thought they’d torpedo him either.
30? Think JFK.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you to hear of this type of behavior from a powerful politician.
Why…it just can’t be, can it?
Probably making room for Hillary..,
For decades, sexual harassment has been a resume enhancement for leftists as long as they advocated BABY MURDER, yet NOW it’s a problem?
This serial mass murdering granny killer should be swinging from a rope, but instead, this Bubba Clinton Lite kerfuffle is merely #MeToo horsecrap to deflect from Cuomo’s murders, and allow him to fade off into the ‘boys will be boys’ sunset.
These garbage humans elected to office are never held to account. Eff em all.
Next stop, The View, then a hosting gig on MSNBC – because Fredo has the other dump.
It’s been a disappointing few months but this effort to get rid of Cuomo makes me happy.
So. This is just being brougt up now? HGow convenient.
Sorry your name is Karen.
I will not pick a side on the validity of these charges, since there is absolutely no chance that the Joseph Goebbels media will do any honest reporting. I have finally been vaccinated against the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect and will never again take at face value anything “mainstream” journalists write or say.
But that doesn’t mean that we are not learning something interesting. It is painfully obvious that someone powerful in the Communist Party really wants Cuomo gone. Otherwise these charges (true, false, or something in-between) never would have seen the light of day.
This is an absolute nothingburger, which is why it’s happening on Twitter and not a police report. The allegations don’t even rise to the level of hostile environment harassment, much less quid pro quo.
Sent them roses on Valentine’s Day? The cad!!
Call me cynical.
The question arises: do the Dems want to distract from something else, do they want to get rid of Cuomo and replace him with an even worse leftist, or both?
“penis politics often go hand in hand” its a good thing this was at the end of the article or i wouldnt have gotten through it. i havent luaghed so hard since they told me biden got more votes than obama.
“…normalized his behavior.”
Still doesn’t make it right.
Much of this is not specific enough, and wiukd qualify as opinion, not fact. If she were to file a lawsuit, she would need a lot more specifics and fewer generalities.