The governor of the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo is facing demands to resign after an investigation concluded that the governor did in fact sexually harassed eleven of his female colleagues along with creating a “toxic” workplace full of fear, clearly violating state and federal civil laws. The investigation done by the attorney general of the state of New York Letitia James, contains one sixty-five pages. The report includes graphic details of how Cuomo sexually harassed his colleagues including the one time when he grabbed the breast of a female colleague by reaching under her shirt. After the report became public, Cuomo released a video mentioning that he never inappropriately touched anyone nor he made any sexual advances towards anyone.
Andrew Cuomo is the son of Mario Cuomo, a three-term New York governor. The start of the pandemic turned Cuomo into some sort of hero, however, it was later revealed that he misreported the number of deaths by withholding the ones that happened in nursing homes. On top of the nursing home fiasco, two of his female colleagues accused him of sexual harassment, after which many others came forward, leading to a five-month investigation by Letitia James, the attorney general of New York. “Specifically, the investigation found that Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed current and former New York state employees by engaging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching and making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women,” James said in a recent press conference. “This investigation has revealed conduct that corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government and shines light on injustice that can be present at the highest levels of government. But none of this, none of this would have been illuminated if not for the heroic women who came forward.”
The people who were in charge of carrying out the investigation, Anne Clark and Joon Kim, spoke to a lot of people including the ones who spoke out against the governor along with the New York executive chamber’s former and current members. They also reviewed more than seventy-four thousand pictures, texts, documents, and emails. Their findings revealed a “deeply disturbing yet clear picture” of a “toxic workplace” in which Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed many women, most of them young, by kissing, hugging, groping, and making clearly inappropriate comments. According to James, the women found the above to be “deeply humiliating, uncomfortable, offensive, or inappropriate.” Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, recently said “I don’t know that anyone could have watched this morning and not found the allegations to be abhorrent. I know I certainly did.”
Many of the state’s Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Hakeem Jeffries, and Mondaire Jones are demanding the resignation of the governor, with Gillibrand calling the report “deeply, deeply disturbing”. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of the city of New York, said “I’ll state the obvious: the summary you just gave represents behaviour that’s unacceptable. Unacceptable in anyone, let alone a public servant. I’ve been very clear about that fact that what we’ve seen is disqualifying.”
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