‘Resign you disgusting monster’: Pressure on Cuomo increases as more accusers come forward
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One of the women accusing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of making unwanted suggestive comments toward them and touching them inappropriately called for him to resign as two more former aides came forward with stories of their own uncomfortable interactions with the man.
“Resign you disgusting monster,” Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Mr Cuomo, said in a tweet.
Her rage comes as two more women share their own allegations regarding Mr Cuomo’s unwanted advances.
Mr Cuomo's former press aide Karen Hinton said she experienced a "very long, too long, too tight, too intimate" hug from the governor while the two were in a dimly lit hotel room in December 2000. Ms Hinton recalled her interactions with Mr Cuomo in The Washington Post.
She recalled the events of the evening, saying that Mr Cuomo pulled "her back for another intimate embrace," which she feared would escalate into more physical contact.
"I thought at that moment it could lead to a kiss, it could lead to other things, so I just pull away again, and I leave," she said.
A spokesperson for Mr Cuomo denied the allegations, stating he flatly denied the allegations.
“This did not happen,” Mr Cuomo’s spokesman Peter Ajemian said. “Karen Hinton is a known antagonist of the governor’s who is attempting to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with made up allegations from 21 years ago. All women have the right to come forward and tell their story – however, it’s also the responsibility of the press to consider self-motivation. This is reckless.”
Ms Hinton is married to Howard Glaser, one of Mr Cuomo's longtime political allies. Mr Glaser worked as Mr Cuomo's state operations and senior police advisor until leaving in 2014.
The second woman to accuse Mr Cuomo in the last 48 hours is Ana Liss, who worked as a policy and operations aide for the governor between 2013 to 2015.
Ms Liss said the governor called her "sweetheart" and asked her about her love life and whether or not she was single.
"It's not appropriate, really, in any setting," Ms Liss said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
She claimed Mr Cuomo touched her on her lower back during an event, and that he kissed her hand and asked her if she had a boyfriend.
Ms Liss said she felt Mr Cuomo reduced her to "just a skirt".
Officials representing Mr Cuomo did not directly address Ms Liss’s claims, offering a statement that downplayed the severity of her allegations.
“Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures. At the public open-house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures,” a spokesman for Mr Cuomo said. “That’s what people in politics do.”
The women's accusations are the latest to paint Mr Cuomo as a powerful man making unwanted advances toward the women working for him.
Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Mr Cuomo, was the first to make allegations against the governor. She said he allegedly kissed her on the lips without warning her or seeking her consent while the two were in the governor's office.
Mr Cuomo also allegedly asked Ms Boylan to “play strip poker”.
More recently, Charlotte Bennett, Mr Cuomo's former assistant and health policy advisor, said the governor asked her inappropriate questions about her dating life and insinuated that she was old enough that he would consider dating her. She is 25.
Ms Bennett said she felt certain that he "wanted to sleep with me" during a televised interview she gave on the CBS Evening News.
Anna Ruch, a former campaign worker for Joe Biden, also has made allegations against Mr Cuomo, who she said gave her an unwanted kiss on the cheek during a wedding in 2019. She said the encounter left her "confused and shocked and embarrassed".
Mr Cuomo’s office released a statement addressing the first three allegations in which he apologised for his actions. He said he would not resign.
“At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I do, on occasion, tease people in what I think is a good-natured way … I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended,” the statement said. “I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.”
Mr Cuomo was not immediately available for comment.
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