Aides to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called former employees to glean information about potential conversations they had with Lindsey Boylan a former aide who accused him workplace sexual harassment in December, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
My Goodness…
Is this unusual? I would think being accused of something would make one want to discredit the accuser. And is ‘the subtext was clear’ an opinion or fact? Not sure if there is much to this except to keep the story front and center.
To use the taxpayer-supported power of the state’s Executive Office to discredit an accuser of sexual harrassment? Yeah, this is a big deal.
I watched a whole bunch of Lindsay Boylan videos on YouTube and I am not remotely convinced she is credible. No opinions on the other accusers. I don’t care if Cuomo stays or goes, but if he goes it shouldn’t be on Boylan’s word, imo.
This is the standard reaction of the rich and/or the powerful when accused of anything - discredit the accuser. That is why every story of a cop shooting an unarmed person of color is rapidly followed by stories that they were high on pot AND have a police record, or, in cases like this, how the woman was unstable or promiscuous. So no, it is not unusual at all. It is indeed standard operating procedure.
But strip poker - really, Andrew? Strip poker?
No, it’s not unusual. That is the story. The governor of a major state wants his NY-taxpayer funded staff to help him discredit accusers regarding his personal behavior.
This is what powerful men do. This is what women have to endure.
I accept that Cuomo’s presidential aspirations are probably done for because Democrats care about that sort of thing and don’t want their candidates to have that baggage.
But after four plus years of the “Creature from the Mar a Lagoon,” I’m not put off much by the allegations against Cuomo even in this Me Too era. I give him a pass for making a pass or twenty.
I heartily sympathize with the women, so don’t mistake me. Harvey Weinstein and all that. Any younger male politician who comes up in this day and age had better absorb the lessons, because there can be no excuses for them from here on.
If it escalates to actual sexual assault in a credible accusation against Cuomo, I’ll feel differently about him. Unless he really likes beer, that is, as that seems to be the get-out-of-rape-jail card, according to Republicans.
On the one hand, it’s not news-worthy in the sense that no one expects anything better from Cuomo and his Loyalists.
On the other hand, that’s no excuse.
Here’s something unrelated:
Liss, who earlier this month also accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior, told WSJ that a senior adviser to the governor, Rich Azzopardi, called her on Dec. 21.
Ms. Liss recently accused Cuomo in public. Is it the case that three months elapsed between that call she received from Azzopardi and her decision to speak out about her own experience?
Why?
Are you saying, essentially, that he’d still be a better president than Trump was?
This is getting uglier by the minute
He was loathed before the pandemic. What’s new? He’s just a gangster at heart with the usual symptoms of being in power too long. Although NY state will be a target for the Trumping mob and there aren’t very good replacements, he’s got to read the cards and make an exeunt stage left.
Unfortunately that leaves the possibility of a Rump pardon in the future.
The most recent allegation would almost certainly constitute sexual assault. Is it credible? Unless something very bad comes out regarding the accuser as was the case with Tara Reade, the woman who accused Biden, then I would say yes. Why did Cuomo summon her late at night for some minor problem with his cell phone? The Mansion has landlines. Why did he have her come into the residence part, rather than one of the public areas?
As for him being better than Trump, that’s an awfully low bar that I hope we don’t descend to…
Once you get out of NYC upstate NYS is basically farm country, and they really hate Cuomo. There are still Trump signs in front of the barns. So the squealing in Albany isn’t going away any time soon. The politics in Albany is based on nothing but power and grift, the list of jailed and/or disgraced leaders is long and impressive. So, I don’t know who to believe - let’s give Tish some time to sort this out.
This is true. As a resident of upstate, the people here still have signs opposing the NY Safe Act, gun safety legislation that was signed over EIGHT years ago, and GOP assemblymen from rural areas are beating the drum for resignation----their inconsistencies when it comes to sexual harrassment are breathtaking. And of course, Elise Stefanik, who was all but invisible until she decided to go full-on Trumpster has been referring to Cuomo as the ‘worst governor ever’ for a while now, long before she even had any justification to say those things. We certainly have a mixed bag here. Gone are the days, it seems, when a Roswell P. Flower (from Watertown) or a Silas Wright (from Canton) has a real shot at being governor.
Interesting to see the sexual-harassment minimizers here on TPM.
Wonder if they offered Trump the same shadow of doubt.
Wonder how many women it will take telling pretty much the same story of creepy invasions of body & mind.
Just sayin’.
If Cuomo goes, the Governor will be an upstate Democrat, the current LG, Kathy Hochul.
Yes.
If he goes, however he goes, the possibilities were discussed here a few days ago.
Some of the Dems have been proposing he step aside voluntarily until things are clarified. I see that as unlikely, but things are moving rapidly, so it’s not out of the question.