More Bad News For The ‘Luv Gov’ — Former Cuomo Aide Details Pervasive Sexual Harassment Claims
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s political star is falling and it’s a spectacular thing to watch.
Governor Arrogant has been accepting an Emmy award, hanging out with celebrities, bragging about his handling of the pandemic, published a book on leadership during a pandemic, created a commemorative poster, and continues blaming nursing home staff for the spread of COVID-19 in their facilities — all while hiding the actual death toll from his atrocious order that forced COVID-positive patients into nursing homes despite objections by families and nursing administrators.
Seeing him floundering in scandal after scandal is rather satisfying.
Back in December, Lindsey Boylan, a former high-ranking aide to Gov. Cuomo, came forward on Twitter with allegations of sexual harassment.
ClashDaily covered that here:
It should really be noted that these are allegations that are made against Governor Cuomo and nothing has been proven. This is what Lindsey Boylan says happened, which doesn’t mean that it actually did happen as she claims. Unlike the left that shouts “believe all women” we believe that accusations are just accusations and not proof of wrongdoing. That said, it’s some pretty damning stuff. It’s “big if true” as they say.
On Wednesday, Boylan detailed some of the allegations in an extensive essay in Medium.
A former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo is accusing the embattled New York leader of sexually harassing her — including unwanted kissing and touching — and says his top female staffers “normalized” the behavior.
Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor, said Cuomo constantly sought her out and had staffers arrange meetings with her, where he made inappropriate comments.
Source: Fox News
Boylan started working for the Cuomo administration in 2015 as Vice President at Empire State Development and quickly moved up the ranks to Chief of Staff at the state economic development agency. When she got her promotion, she was warned by a friend who had worked closely with Cuomo, “Be careful around the Governor.”
In her article on Medium, Boylan begins pretty bluntly:
“Let’s play strip poker.”
I should have been shocked by the Governor’s crude comment, but I wasn’t.
We were flying home from an October 2017 event in Western New York on his taxpayer-funded jet. He was seated facing me, so close our knees almost touched. His press aide was to my right and a state trooper behind us.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I responded sarcastically and awkwardly. I tried to play it cool. But in that moment, I realized just how acquiescent I had become.
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. His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation that he liked you, that you must be doing something right. He used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences.
She says that after she shared her tweets back in December, she knew that a smear campaign was coming.
Last week, Assemblymember Ron Kim spoke out publicly about the intimidation and abuse he has faced from Governor Cuomo and his aides. As Mayor de Blasio remarked, “the bullying is nothing new.” There are many more of us, but most are too afraid to speak up.
I’m compelled to tell my story because no woman should feel forced to hide their experiences of workplace intimidation, harassment and humiliation — not by the Governor or anyone else.
I expect the Governor and his top aides will attempt to further disparage me, just as they’ve done with Assemblymember Kim. They’d lose their jobs if they didn’t protect him. That’s how his administration works.
I know because I was a part of it.
She says that she was told in 2016 that the Governor had a crush on her after meeting him on January 6, shortly after her promotion.
After that, she says that she complained to friends that the Governor would “go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs” and his senior staff “kept tabs” on her whereabouts.
Boylan then goes into some examples of Cuomo’s gross comments. Once, he summoned her to his office where they were alone and he showed her around. Boylan says that he “smirked” while telling her that the cigar box in his office was given to him by Bill Clinton — which immediately brought to mind the affair with Monica Lewinsky. She also details one completely inappropriate incident where he kissed her.
The Governor’s pervasive harassment extended beyond just me. He made unflattering comments about the weight of female colleagues. He ridiculed them about their romantic relationships and significant others. He said the reasons that men get women were “money and power.”
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.
Boylan says that after her tweets, she was contacted by two other women who told her about their own experiences with the “Luv Gov” and how they were in constant fear of speaking out lest they lose their job or be reprimanded by the top women around Cuomo who seemed to dismiss the accusations. In her article, Boylan specifically names Melissa DeRosa as one of the top women around Cuomo that “normalized” the behavior.
She then asks the million-dollar question:
I know some will brush off my experience as trivial. We are accustomed to powerful men behaving badly when no one is watching. But what does it say about us when everyone is watching and no one says a thing?
Source: Medium
She wouldn’t have had to ask that if the Governor was a Republican, and we all know that’s true.
So much for the left’s bleating of “believe all women” back in 2018, eh?
Still, with Cuomo scandal-ridden with the Nursing home debacle and the ensuing cover-up — which may be obstruction of a federal investigation — we might just see some more Democrats turn on him and demand some sort of investigation.
But then, the Biden administration is still being cagey about the guy that had been on the shortlist for Attorney General, so we might not see a Kavanaugh-style circus happen for Governor Cuomo, who clearly was “credibly accused” and has victims afraid to come forward.
I guess we’ll just have to “circle back” on this one.
