Huckabee: It’s over for Cuomo
Mike Huckabee says he does not see how New York Governor Andrew Cuomo survives while a growing list of Democrats calls for his resignation.
A reporter claimed that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo touched her inappropriately and made her feel uncomfortable in trying to impose her power on the young journalist, making her the seventh accuser to present allegations of sexual harassment against the Democratic governor.
“I never thought the governor wanted to have sex with me. It wasn’t about sex. It was about power,” wrote Jessica Bakeman. “He uses touches and sexual innuendo to feed fear in us. That is the definition of sexual harassment.”
Bakeman’s New York magazine article, titled “Cuomo Never Let Me Forget I Was a Woman,” offered a first-person account of sexual harassment charges against the embattled governor, who now faces resignations by top Democrats level.
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“Andrew Cuomo’s hands were on my body – on my arms, shoulders, on the lower back, on my waist – so often in late 2014 that I didn’t want to go to the Christmas party he was offering for Albany’s corps press at the executive mansion, “wrote Bakeman.
She was a 25-year-old state reporter for Politico New York at the time and attended a party organized by the governor, despite being hesitant because of her constant touches.
“I thought that if I skipped the event, I might miss some intangible opportunity to consolidate myself as part of that community. I ignored my instincts and went anyway, leaving New York State Capitol with several colleagues,” she wrote, before noting that his instincts were correct, after all.
“I approached the governor, who was in the middle of a conversation with another reporter, and waited a moment, when I could intervene. He took my hand, as if to shake, but refused to let go. another arm around my back, his hand on my waist and held me firmly in place while indicating to a photographer that he wanted us to pose for a photo, “wrote Bakeman.
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“My job was to analyze and scrutinize him. I didn’t want a picture of him with his hands on my body and a smile on his face. But I did the reflexive assessment that most women and marginalized people instinctively know, the risk calculation, power and self-preservation. I knew it would be much easier to smile at the brief moment it takes to take a photo than to challenge one of the most powerful men in the country, “she continued. “But my calculation was a little wrong. I was wrong to believe that this experience would only last a moment. Maintaining his control over me while I practically wriggled away from him, the governor turned my body in a different direction for the time being another photo . He never let go of my hand. “
Bakeman said Cuomo asked, “Am I making you uncomfortable? I thought we were dating.”
She said she “stood there in stunned, shocked and humiliated silence”, but felt that this was the aim of Cuomo’s inappropriate actions.
“I never thought the governor wanted to have sex with me. It wasn’t about sex. It was about power. He wanted me to know that I was powerless,” she wrote. “That I was small and weak, that I didn’t deserve the relative power I had: a platform to hold him accountable for his words and actions. He wanted me to know that he could take my dignity away at any time with an inappropriate comment or a hand on my waist. “
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Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bakeman wrote that the party “was perhaps the most striking example of when Cuomo sexually harassed me, but it was not the first or the only time” and detailed other examples.
“He took my hand, pulled me into his body and put his arm around my shoulder. He left him there and kept me trapped beside him for several minutes while he finished telling his story. I stayed there, my cheeks hot, laughing nervously while my male colleagues did the same. We all knew it was wrong, but we did nothing. Sexual harassment is so ubiquitous in Albany that we often don’t call it what it is, “she wrote of a previous situation.
Bakeman is the seventh woman to file complaints against Cuomo, and is the latest in a series of accusations faced by the governor, whose popularity soared in mid-2020 amid press conferences in which he showed a calm face in the early days of the pandemic. coronavirus – launching a book on “leadership lessons”.
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New York Democratic MPs Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jerry Nadler joined the Democrats’ chorus calling for his resignation on Friday.
“Whether the governor resigns or ends his term, is re-elected or runs for another office, his eventual departure alone will not end the legacy of sexual harassment in Albany,” wrote Bakeman.
Adam Shaw of Fox News contributed to this report.