In the annals of political men behaving badly, the sexual assault allegations against New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) will be up there, in part for how brazen his alleged attacks were and for how hypocritical his alleged behavior was.
Support our journalism. Subscribe today. arrow-right
And as he resigned Tuesday while denying that he did anything wrong, he gave an explanation and an apology that will go down as among the cringiest in recent memory.
Cuomo tried to fashion the allegations of the 11 women — that he inappropriately touched them or made sexually suggestive comments to them — as a political attack against him and as a giant misunderstanding. Then he claimed that he takes “full responsibility.”
Story continues below advertisement
It’s a classic move for men who want to appear to be sympathetic to the accusers without admitting wrongdoing. And Cuomo’s explanation, in particular, doesn’t jibe with what we know about his case. Such as when he said the following:
‘I have been too familiar with people’
That’s Cuomo’s answer to a 165-page report, based on interviews with 179 people, that determined that he’s a serial sexual harasser.
Advertisement
Yet when an accuser felt the governor’s hand on her buttocks, Cuomo claims this: “I thought a hug and putting my arm around the staff person while taking a picture was friendly, but she found it to be too forward.”
When he allegedly kissed a state employee without her consent, Cuomo claims this is what really happened: “I kissed a woman on the cheek at a wedding and I thought I was being nice, but she felt that it was too aggressive.”
Story continues below advertisement
“I have slipped and called people honey, sweetheart and darling. I meant it to be endearing,” he said Tuesday in defending himself. “But women found it dated and offensive,” he said of women who, in the report, accused him of saying things such as “It’s about time you showed some leg,” or that he wants a girlfriend who “can handle pain,” or that he asked an aide whether she would be willing to cheat on her partner.
Advertisement
In other words, the “full responsibility” Cuomo takes for offending these women fails to even acknowledge what happened to them. He appears to be making an effort to undermine a substantial number of women’s memories and experiences that all point to his behavior, and conflate it with his self-described familiarity with people.
Compare that with the comment by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who oversaw the investigation of the governor: “We should believe women. What this investigation revealed was a disturbing pattern of conduct by the governor of the great state of New York.”
‘I’m not comfortable just walking past and ignoring them’
There is one allegation in the report that is so horrendous that even Cuomo realized he had to address it: the accusation that he came on to, then inappropriately touched, a female state trooper several times. Including this from the report:
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
[H]e ran the palm of his left hand across her stomach in the direction opposite the direction that he was walking. The center of the Governor’s hand was on Trooper #1′s belly button, and he pushed his hand back to her right hip where she kept her gun.
This was witnessed by several other officials, so Cuomo couldn’t try to ignore the allegation as he did others. Instead, he attempted to chalk this moment up to nothing more than a friendly slap on the stomach of troopers he was trying to thank for their work. Yes, you read that right.
Cuomo said that he didn’t remember the incident but that he would give the trooper the benefit of the doubt that it happened. And then he said this:
“At public events, troopers will often hold doors open or guard the doorways. When I walk past them, I often give them a grip of the arm, a pat on the face, a touch on the stomach, a slap on the back. It’s my way of saying: ‘I see you, I appreciate you and I thank you.' I’m not comfortable just walking past and ignoring them. Of course, usually they are male troopers.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Contrast that with how James, the attorney general, said the trooper felt: “She told us that she felt completely violated to have the governor touch her, as she put it, between her chest and privates.”
‘Personal boundaries must be expanded and must be protected’
This was Cuomo’s attempt to take ownership of the allegations against him without taking ownership of the allegations against him. As a public-facing champion of the #MeToo movement, Cuomo pressed for laws around sexual harassment and retaliation that he himself is accused of violating. Publicly, he spoke eloquently of how too often men get away with bad behavior because of the power structure enabling them.
Story continues below advertisement
But when faced with his own accusations, he cast the #MeToo movement as simply women wishing for more personal space when talking with men — as though he had stepped too close to these women, and that’s why he’s losing his job.
Advertisement
“I want to thank the women who came forward with sincere complaints,” he said in perhaps the most awkward part of an extremely contorted address. “It’s not easy to step forward, but you did an important service, and you taught me and you taught others an important lesson. Personal boundaries must be expanded and must be protected.”
‘There are many agendas, and there are many motivations at play’
Cuomo spent a significant portion of his address strongly insinuating that this was all motivated by politics. It’s not clear what those motivations might be, given that his own party in New York was moving toward impeaching him if he didn’t resign. (Legislators still might impeach him, my colleagues report, to bar him from ever serving in public office in New York again.)
Cuomo may not have been well-liked by legislators in his party, but in no state is it politically advantageous for a party to impeach its own leader.