A former aide believes that Governor Andrew Cuomo was “trying to sleep with me” during a one-on-one meeting at his office in Albany last year, according to a TV interview that aired Thursday night.
During a segment broadcast on “CBS Evening News”, Charlotte Bennett, 25, was asked by anchor Norah O’Donnell what she was thinking while Cuomo, 63, was asking questions about her sex life on June 5.
“I thought, he’s trying to sleep with me. The governor is trying to sleep with me and I am deeply uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible, ”said Bennett.
“What made you think he was trying to sleep with you?” O’Donnell asked.
“Without saying it explicitly, he – he implied that I was old enough for him and that he was lonely,” said Bennett.
At one point, O’Donnell asked Bennett if Cuomo was probably “encouraged” by all the “national attention” he received from his coronavirus briefings on television.
“Absolutely. I think he felt untouchable in many ways,” she replied.
Bennett also told O’Donnell that she had no doubts about Cuomo’s motives.
“Do you believe he was proposing to you?” O’Donnell asked.
“Yes,” replied Bennett.
“For what?” O’Donnell asked.
“Sex,” replied Bennett.
Bennett said Cuomo’s questions about his sex life included asking “whether the age difference mattered”.
“He also explained that he accepted anyone over 22,” she added.
During a previous conversation, on May 15, Bennett recalled, Cuomo seemed fixated on his story of surviving sexual attacks.
“Then he said, ‘You were raped. You were raped. You were raped, abused and beaten, ‘”she said.
A second part of the interview is scheduled to air on Friday on “CBS This Morning”, and O’Donnell previewed some of it during an appearance on the local CBS-2 News at 5.
O’Donnell said Bennett “says Governor Cuomo is, in her words, a textbook abuser” and “even uses words like the one that was prepared for this relationship”.
Bennett is one of three women whose allegations are being investigated by an independent law firm to be appointed by Attorney General Letitia James.