Et tu, Cuomo?

[Little Raven]

Eek.

A former adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused him of sexual harassment Sunday, alleging that the behavior went on for "years."

In a series of tweets, the woman, Lindsey Boylan, who worked as deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor from 2015 to 2018, said Cuomo "sexually harassed me for years."

"Many saw it, and watched," Boylan said. She did not name people who could corroborate her claims.

[Jaymann]

Possible, but it seems a bit coincidental that this comes out when Cuomo is under consideration for AG.

[Daehawk]

Someone in 1949 touched me. 20 years before I was born be damned.

[Daehawk]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/c ... e/2918032/

Calls are getting louder. Looks like 6 state Dems have joined to have him impeached. See if thi was the Republicans not a single one would help and all support him. This is why the Dems lose.....if the stories are true then they should impeach him but the Dems are shooting themselves in the foot being the 'good' guys in politics. They should never give an inch to the GOP or piss on them when they are on fire.

[pr0ner]

Apparently Gov. Cuomo has scheduled a 1 PM presser for this afternoon after growing calls from Democrats, both in the NY State Assembly and Congress, for him to resign as more allegations against him come out.

Here's one example:

[malchior]

Not that I'm defending Cuomo but this is a more severe version of what happened to Al Franken. Democrats hounding out someone before a full investigation is completed. And what does it gain them? Almost nothing.

[pr0ner]

Thread starts here, but basically he says that he did not do what he alleged, and he is not going to resign.

Kind of sounds similar to the Justin Fairfax situation here in Virginia, where he denied (worse) allegations and stayed on the job. He's gonna try to get the Democratic nomination for governor here this year, but thankfully he'll fail.



Cuomo is also blaming cancel culture.

[AWS260]

I think Cuomo would be getting a lot more benefit of the doubt if he wasn't such an enormous asshole and bully. A whole lot of NY Democrats would love to see him fall from grace.

[Little Raven]

I think Cuomo got used to Trump constantly sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

[$iljanus]

This is the gift that keeps on giving since it can go here or the COVID political thread.

New York’s vaccine czar called county officials to gauge their loyalty to Cuomo amid sexual harassment investigation

New York’s “vaccine czar” — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, according to multiple officials.

One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office, the official told The Washington Post. The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response to his questions about support of the governor.

“At best, it was inappropriate,” said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear that the Cuomo administration would retaliate against the county’s residents. “At worst, it was clearly over the ethical line.”

Larry Schwartz, who is working in a volunteer capacity to run New York’s vaccine distribution, acknowledged making the calls in response to an inquiry by The Post, but said he did so as a 30-year friend of Cuomo and did not discuss vaccines in the conversations.

I think someone who happens to both head the distribution of vaccines in NY and has the reputation of being an “enforcer” for Cuomo would make me a bit wary if he called me to gauge my “loyalty” to the governor. Larry claims to have had friendly conversations with the people he called and wasn’t wearing his vaccine czar hat. It’s like someone who represents a “Family” owned insurance company making an offhand remark about how nice your store is and what a shame it would be if it unexpectedly burned down...

From the NYT:

n one case, a county executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that after Mr. Schwartz had discussed the governor’s political situation, he then pivoted directly to a conversation about vaccine distribution.
In another example, a second county executive said Mr. Schwartz called immediately after a different Cuomo administration official had called about vaccine distribution in the county.

The close timing of those calls was unusual enough that the second executive’s legal counsel filed a preliminary complaint on Friday with the state attorney general office’s public integrity bureau, about a possible ethics violation by the governor’s office, according to an official with direct knowledge of the complaint.

It’s the culture that Cuomo has fostered which allows this to go on. I mean really, you palm this sort of thing off on an aide or the chief of staff.

[LawBeefaroni]

Are they trying to be Illinois?

[$iljanus]

Are they trying to be Illinois?

LOL. One's deep dish while the other is NY style but both are an old political machine. It's just so laughably ham fisted.

[Smoove_B]

Apparently he's one bad day away from being a Trump. I really hadn't been following anything about Cuomo until he was doing his daily COVID-19 updates (they were A++), so this is pretty difficult for me to process. Not that I don't believe any of it, it's just that for me my first genuine, consistent impressions were related to how he was out in front of the unfolding pandemic. I understand now that those following more closely aren't entirely surprised, but man...what a change from March and April of 2020.

[$iljanus]

I think Cuomo is quite passionate about his causes...and his women. I don’t doubt his sincerity in trying to do right by his constituents. I also don’t doubt that he has a huge ego, control and self-control issues. Thanks for all the good things but don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

He’ll probably earn bank at CNN if they start airing The Cuomo Bros at 9PM.

[Jaymann]

Chris Cuomo seems like a decent sort. How could he not know what an A-hole his bro is?

[$iljanus]

Chris Cuomo seems like a decent sort. How could he not know what an A-hole his bro is?

They’re brothers. He probably loves him and thinks he’s being an asshole. Family, what can you do? Shrug

[malchior]

I still don't equate this to Trump levels at all yet. Trump was accused of actual rape. Cuomo as yet has been accused of some unwanted attention and some handiness. They are talking about touching of parts of the side and back at public events, kisses on the cheek, etc. The most serious accusations IMO are still the conduct involving employees being investigated. That said, the rules are ever clearer now for men in power. They need to be crystal clear about consent and impeccable at public events.

[LawBeefaroni]

Apparently he's one bad day away from being a Trump. I really hadn't been following anything about Cuomo until he was doing his daily COVID-19 updates (they were A++), so this is pretty difficult for me to process. Not that I don't believe any of it, it's just that for me my first genuine, consistent impressions were related to how he was out in front of the unfolding pandemic. I understand now that those following more closely aren't entirely surprised, but man...what a change from March and April of 2020.

Remember when Guliani was "America's Mayor" and everyone ignored his affair? Don't let rising to one occasion (no matter how big) define someone entirely. They'll probably regress to the mean eventually.

[noxiousdog]

I still don't equate this to Trump levels at all yet. Trump was accused of actual rape. Cuomo as yet has been accused of some unwanted attention and some handiness. They are talking about touching of parts of the side and back at public events, kisses on the cheek, etc. The most serious accusations IMO are still the conduct involving employees being investigated. That said, the rules are ever clearer now for men in power. They need to be crystal clear about consent and impeccable at public events.

Similar to my comment in the 5th estate thread, the low bar for criticism should not be Trump. One of the reasons I have been voting Democratic Party for years is they have been holding their own to a proper standards.

We were talking about this at dinner last night. One of the roots of our problems in America is people excusing their tribe.. whichever tribe that is. Doctors, police, hollywood, political parties, individual families, churches, etc, find ways to excuse and hide deplorable behavior. It's heartening and extremely respectable to me that the Democratic Party isn't participating.

Yes, they do go too far sometimes, but more often than not they have been making the right decisions.

[malchior]

I still don't equate this to Trump levels at all yet. Trump was accused of actual rape. Cuomo as yet has been accused of some unwanted attention and some handiness. They are talking about touching of parts of the side and back at public events, kisses on the cheek, etc. The most serious accusations IMO are still the conduct involving employees being investigated. That said, the rules are ever clearer now for men in power. They need to be crystal clear about consent and impeccable at public events.

Similar to my comment in the 5th estate thread, the low bar for criticism should not be Trump. One of the reasons I have been voting Democratic Party for years is they have been holding their own to a proper standards.

We were talking about this at dinner last night. One of the roots of our problems in America is people excusing their tribe.. whichever tribe that is. Doctors, police, hollywood, political parties, individual families, churches, etc, find ways to excuse and hide deplorable behavior. It's heartening and extremely respectable to me that the Democratic Party isn't participating.

Yes, they do go too far sometimes, but more often than not they have been making the right decisions.

I think they go too far often in these cases. The bar isn't Trump - it is more a comparison with how the Democrats form circular firing squads where the Republicans wall up without question and refuse to face the behavior. There is another path and I give Pelosi and Biden credit for walking it. They haven't joined in the calls for resignation *while the investigations play out*. That is important in my opinion.

As we have seen an illiberal movement on the right which rejects reality, we see an illiberal movement on the left that thrives on public shunning people without full facts. Different impacts on several scales but still important to understand. The accusations against Cuomo at this point are only that so far and we need some temperance here. What we learned from the Franken case was that the 'mob justice' without evidence is politically expedient but ends up being terrible from a societal fabric point of view.

[noxiousdog]

I still don't equate this to Trump levels at all yet. Trump was accused of actual rape. Cuomo as yet has been accused of some unwanted attention and some handiness. They are talking about touching of parts of the side and back at public events, kisses on the cheek, etc. The most serious accusations IMO are still the conduct involving employees being investigated. That said, the rules are ever clearer now for men in power. They need to be crystal clear about consent and impeccable at public events.

Similar to my comment in the 5th estate thread, the low bar for criticism should not be Trump. One of the reasons I have been voting Democratic Party for years is they have been holding their own to a proper standards.

We were talking about this at dinner last night. One of the roots of our problems in America is people excusing their tribe.. whichever tribe that is. Doctors, police, hollywood, political parties, individual families, churches, etc, find ways to excuse and hide deplorable behavior. It's heartening and extremely respectable to me that the Democratic Party isn't participating.

Yes, they do go too far sometimes, but more often than not they have been making the right decisions.

I think they go too far often in these cases. The bar isn't Trump - it is more a comparison with how the Democrats form circular firing squads where the Republicans wall up without question and refuse to face the behavior. There is another path and I give Pelosi and Biden credit for walking it. They haven't joined in the calls for resignation *while the investigations play out*. That is important in my opinion.

As we have seen an illiberal movement on the right which rejects reality, we see an illiberal movement on the left that thrives on public shunning people without full facts. Different impacts on several scales but still important to understand. The accusations against Cuomo at this point are only that so far and we need some temperance here. What we learned from the Franken case was that the 'mob justice' without evidence is politically expedient but ends up being terrible from a societal fabric point of view.

Without evidence? There's a picture of Franken with him laughing as he's doing it. There's situations where I could laugh that off, but not from a US Senator.

[malchior]

Without evidence? There's a picture of Franken with him laughing as he's doing it. There's situations where I could laugh that off, but not from a US Senator.

There was indeed a picture in poor taste but there has been many series of retrospectives about how the Franken incident was blown way out of proportion. There never was an investigation against Franken. Many of people involved running off Franken have expressed regret and believe he shouldn't have been forced to resign. It is a lesson that Cuomo is leaning on to survive to be honest even though his case is worse. But my real point is there are investigations outstanding. Let them run the course then run him out of town on a rail if the facts support it.

Edit: It also came up last year - when Pete Buttigieg made a comment about it. That article is a good intro into how it has been digested over time.

[naednek]

Chris Cuomo seems like a decent sort. How could he not know what an A-hole his bro is?

wonder if he has to report the story about his brother. That would be awkward

[Jaymann]

Chris Cuomo seems like a decent sort. How could he not know what an A-hole his bro is?

wonder if he has to report the story about his brother. That would be awkward

I saw a brief segment where he said he would not.

[noxiousdog]

But my real point is there are investigations outstanding. Let them run the course then run him out of town on a rail if the facts support it.

Edit: It also came up last year - when Pete Buttigieg made a comment about it. That article is a good intro into how it has been digested over time.

I'm fine with letting the investigations run their course. I think the Biden stuff was handled perfectly well, for example.

[Little Raven]

Turns out there are tapes.

[Holman]

New accusers keep appearing.

Obviously allegations should be investigated before being accepted uncritically, but it looks like there's fire under all this smoke.

Has anyone stepped forward to counter any of the claims? In the Tara Reade claim against Biden, multiple co-workers corroborated his denial and demonstrated where her accusation didn't hold up to scrutiny. I don't think we're seeing any of that with Cuomo.

[malchior]

NY AG Letitia James' independent investigation finds NY Gov sexually harassed employees. She announced that he violated state and federal law. <stories to come - this is live on tv right now>

Edit: She claims there is evidence he and senior staff retaliated against someone who complained.

Edit 2: This press conference is a nightmare. Apparently several organizations and individuals in NY State government has been breaking rules. guidance, and laws left and right to protect Cuomo's ability to be a groping creep.

[Smoove_B]

Here's a CNBC feed on what's happening.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women who worked for the state and elsewhere, according to report by state Attorney General Letitia James.
The investigation concluded that Cuomo “violated federal and state law,” James said at a press conference.
Cuomo then retaliated against a former employee who complained publicly about his conduct, James’ report says.
The probe into numerous women’s allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo began in March, after the state’s executive chamber granted James’ request to investigate.

[LawBeefaroni]

And that's undoubtedly with interference from the state. This turd is cooked.

[malchior]

And that's undoubtedly with interference from the state. This turd is cooked.

Yeah they documented the interference. The lawyers from the outside firms were describing the litany of obstacles and bad behaviors at this press conference. It's ugly. I figured NY was corrupt like NJ is but the width/breadth of bad behavior is appalling.

[Isgrimnur]

"I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!"

[malchior]

This press conference went to shit as soon as the reporter's were allowed to question James. Most were pretty ridiculous. They keep asking the AG political questions, "Should he resign? Should he run for re-election? Were you frustrated by...?"

FWIW James kept repeating the same thing, "That's a political question. Our investigation is concluded". Oy vey.

Edit: One thing I found odd is that they found that it violated state and federal law but wouldn't be pursuing criminal charges. She also hasn't explained the lack of a charging decision. I'm more than a little curious to know why they didn't go there.

[LawBeefaroni]

From the state that brought you such hits as Elliot Spitzer, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump...

[El Guapo]

This press conference went to shit as soon as the reporter's were allowed to question James. Most were pretty ridiculous. They keep asking the AG political questions, "Should he resign? Should he run for re-election? Were you frustrated by...?"

FWIW James kept repeating the same thing, "That's a political question. Our investigation is concluded". Oy vey.

Edit: One thing I found odd is that they found that it violated state and federal law but wouldn't be pursuing criminal charges. She also hasn't explained the lack of a charging decision. I'm more than a little curious to know why they didn't go there.

Was she not asked whether they would be charging Cuomo? Kind of a weird thing to omit when she just said that he committed crimes.

I also wonder whether there's a state level thing where the AG can't charge a sitting governor or something.

[malchior]

This press conference went to shit as soon as the reporter's were allowed to question James. Most were pretty ridiculous. They keep asking the AG political questions, "Should he resign? Should he run for re-election? Were you frustrated by...?"

FWIW James kept repeating the same thing, "That's a political question. Our investigation is concluded". Oy vey.

Edit: One thing I found odd is that they found that it violated state and federal law but wouldn't be pursuing criminal charges. She also hasn't explained the lack of a charging decision. I'm more than a little curious to know why they didn't go there.

Was she not asked whether they would be charging Cuomo? Kind of a weird thing to omit when she just said that he committed crimes.

She explicitly said she wasn't charging him and responded that it was in the power of her office to do so when asked about it. She made some nebulous reference that police and prosecutors would have access to the report. One explainer said she might have decided to not charge to appear non-biased but that falls flat to me.

I also wonder whether there's a state level thing where the AG can't charge a sitting governor or something.

Apparently not from her own comments and other lawsplainers I just heard speaking on MSNBC. She can do it. The AG is independent of the Governor in NY (elected separately).

[malchior]

Cuomo is going to speak at 1 PM. This is going to memorable. I am hoping for a massive meltdown. This has all the hallmark's of a 'bad decision'. Firing back an hour later? I wonder if he thinks he'll dazzle us with his good looks or something. He is his own worst enemy.

[Isgrimnur]

Exhibit A in the upcoming civil trials.

[LawBeefaroni]

I also wonder whether there's a state level thing where the AG can't charge a sitting governor or something.

Apparently not from her own comments and other lawsplainers I just heard speaking on MSNBC. She can do it. The AG is independent of the Governor in NY (elected separately).

Party first.

[malchior]

Party first.

Honestly that is what it feels like to me. Another factor perhaps is that prosecutors are risk averse by their nature. She got someone else to run the investigation, she landed solid blows, and got to stand under the lights on national tv. Why take a risk that'll blow up in her face?