When a second woman came forward with allegations of sexual harassment against Governor Andrew Cuomo, something shifted.
Cuomo—who gained national notoriety for his press briefings during the height of the pandemic and has long enjoyed favorable polling—attempted to install a former judge, Barbara Jones, to review the allegations. He quickly faced scrutiny for installing Jones, who once worked with a longtime Cuomo ally and former aide to the governor, Steve Cohen. On Sunday, he changed his position, instead calling on Attorney General Letitia James and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to choose another private lawyer to do the investigation.
James wasn’t pleased. She called for a formal referral through state law that would give her subpoena powers, declining the governor’s offer in two separate statements issued Sunday. The Governor’s office has not responded to questions about James’s statement. Political observers saw Cuomo running through his typical playbook—but the response, this time, is different.
“This is Cuomo 101,” said Monica Klein, a progressive political consultant. “But typically, no one beyond the Albany press corps is watching, right? And so this is a moment where the Cuomo playbook just doesn't work.”
Cuomo’s national standing had begun to falter for weeks following revelations that data on nursing home residents who had died of COVID-19 had been withheld and allegations that Cuomo had forcibly kissed Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to the governor. On Saturday night, a former executive assistant, 25-year-old Charlotte Bennett, came forward with allegations that the governor had asked her about her sex life and if she had slept with older men. In conversations with Bennett, Cuomo was particularly fixated on the fact that Bennett was a sexual assault survivor and suggested she get a tattoo on her buttocks so that it wouldn’t be visible in a dress, Bennett alleged. Cuomo said he was trying to be a mentor to Bennett.
Throughout the day, calls mounted for a genuinely independent investigation into the claims, with at least three Democratic lawmakers calling for his resignation. The legislature’s leaders, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, have demanded a “truly independent” investigation. The possibility of impeachment seemed unlikely; one Republican State Senator, Jim Tedisco, called for him to resign and if he doesn’t, he’d support impeachment. State GOP leadership also called for resignation.
The Sexual Harassment Working Group, formed by a group of ex-state legislative employees who have been fighting for legislative changes to better protect workers from sexual harassment and abuse, demanded Cuomo resign and for James to appoint a special assistant to the attorney general to investigate sexual harassment, retaliation, and abuse by the governor.
Working group co-founder, Erica Vladimer, said an independent investigation free of Cuomo’s influence and, further, outside of the state legislature itself is critical for any accountability in the future—especially given lawmakers have to maintain some semblance of a working relationship with the governor to pass a state budget by April 1st, she said.
“The political relationships, when it comes to the state legislature at a time when we're trying to fund our future and truly invest in our New York, it makes it impossible for the legislature to be the truly independent arbiter that we need to investigate these claims,” Vladimer said.
“Everything that is connected to his abuse of power must be investigated,” added Vladimer, who co-founded the working group after coming forward about being forcibly kissed by her former boss, ex-State Senator Jeff Klein.
Politically, Cuomo appears more vulnerable than he has in his entire tenure as governor, said Klein, noting his position on how an investigation would unfold changed in less than 24 hours.
"Anyone who thinks that they can guess what's gonna happen in Albany is lying. But I would say he is more vulnerable than he's ever been and the types of voices that are speaking out against him, or, at least calling for independent investigations are more moderate and closer to him than they have been before," Klein said.
It doesn’t help that he has become a more well known figure on a national scale, giving hundreds of press briefings over the course of a year and facing a rising force of people willing to speak out against him.
“His own created massive persona is now hurting him,” Klein said.
A former aide to the governor, who requested anonymity, said it is hard to see the governor resigning, given the lack of apology after the withholding of information on nursing home deaths came to light.
“On nursing homes, a modicum of contrition would have helped soften the criticism some. And instead, he says, 'Who cares?'" the aide said. The former aide doubted Cuomo could survive the latest accusations beyond his third term as governor.
“There’s no fourth term coming,” the aide said. “That’s now a pipe dream. That dream is dead.”
