New York's Andrew Cuomo accused of forcibly kissing former aide
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Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, has been accused of forcibly kissing a former aide in allegations that could hurt his chances of a presidential run in 2024.
Lindsey Boylan, who was a special adviser to the governor until she resigned in 2018, said Mr Cuomo “abused his power as governor to sexually harass me, just as he had done with so many other women.”
Writing in a post on the website Medium, Ms Boylan, 36, says she stepped down from her position after Mr Cuomo stepped in front of her path and kissed her on the lips after a meeting at his office in New York City. She had also worked as a deputy secretary for economic development.
Mr Cuomo, who has recently faced criticism for covering up the extent of deaths in New York’s care homes, is under growing pressure.
Elise Stefanik, Republican representative for New York's 21st congressional district, called for Mr Cuomo to immediately resign, adding that “any elected official who does not immediately call for his resignation is complicit in allowing a sexual predator to continue leading the great state of New York.”
Alessandra Biaggi, Democratic state senator for The Bronx, also tweeted about Ms Boylan’s accusations: “I have no doubt that this is true," she wrote. “I’ve witnessed similar behavior, and it’s unacceptable."
In the post, Ms Boylan writes that Mr Cuomo, 63, had told staff she reminded him of his former girlfriend, only “better looking.” She posted screenshots purportedly of emails from the Director of the Governor’s offices telling her to ‘look up’ Mr Cuomo’s former girlfriend.
“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,“ she writes.
She details specific events which made her uncomfortable, including Mr Cuomo allegedly “going out of his way” to touch her legs and lower back.
Ms Boylan, who recently launched a campaign for Manhattan borough president, also claimed he joked about them playing strip poker.
She claims the governor created an uncomfortable atmosphere for female staff, giving them Valentines’ Day presents, commenting on their appearance, their weight and their relationships.
“Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected,” she writes.
Caitlin Girouard, Mr Cuomo’s Press Secretary, responded in a statement: “As we have said before, Ms Boylan’s claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.”
In response to more general allegations made by Ms Boylan last year, the governor said: “I fought for and I believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has, but it’s just not true.”
In the wake of the national reckoning brought on by the #MeToo movement, the third-term Democrat signed a series of measures to address sexual harassment in 2018, including mandating standards for sexual harassment training in the state’s workplaces.
However, more recently, he has faced allegations of creating a work environment that some former staffers called “beyond toxic” and “endlessly dispiriting.”
Karen Hinton, who says she worked on and off with Mr Cuomo for decades, described him on Wednesday as a “master of the art” of what she called “Penis Politics.”
Writing in the NY Daily News, Ms Hinton claimed Mr Cuomo championed women’s rights and equality in public, but “behind closed doors, uses gender domination as one means to assert their power over women.”
The empathy and candor Mr Cuomo showed during the height of the Covid-19 crisis in New York made the governor a nationwide star and one of the key faces responding to the pandemic. He wrote a book on the subject and even won an Emmy Award for his daily briefings.
Would-be Democratic voters polled over who they would vote to be the party’s presidential nominee should the election be held today put Mr Cuomo out in front, two points above Vice President Kamala Harris.
However, Mr Cuomo has since become embroiled in a scandal over his administration’s decision to withhold New York State’s nursing home death toll, which was nearly 50 per cent higher than officially reported.
The FBI and the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York has opened an inquiry into the alleged cover-up.
