Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to publicly accuse Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, called the governor a “disgusting monster” and asked for his resignation after two more women shared their own accusations against the legislator, bringing the total to five.
Writing late on Saturday on Twitter, Boylan also expressed support for the fourth and fifth accusers, former Cuomo employees Ana Liss and Karen Hinton.
“Renounce your disgusting monster, @NYGovCuomo,” tweeted Boylan following the last two allegations.
Liss, 35, told the Wall Street Journal in an article published on Saturday that Cuomo once kissed her hand, asked if she had a boyfriend and made other comments that left her feeling like “just a skirt”.
And Hinton told the Washington Post that in 2000, Cuomo, then head of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, grabbed her in a hug “too long, too long, too tight, too intimate” inside her dimly lit hotel room in Los Angeles.
“I am very proud of Ana Liss. She is brave and speaks for me too, ” tweeted Boylan. “It is extremely destructive that our boss, the governor of New York, treated us this way.”
The message was retweeted by hundreds, including Cuomo’s accuser and former employee Charlotte Bennett, 25, who accused the governor of making a series of unpleasant comments that left her convinced that he was seeking a sexual relationship.
Added Boylan from the other new charge, “Thank you Karen Hinton for courageously sharing your story of how our boss, one of the most powerful men in the country, used his power to abuse you. I’m sending love to you. I’m with you. We are with you.”
The fifth accuser – and the only one not to work for Cuomo at any time – is Anna Ruch, 33, who claimed that Cuomo grabbed and kissed her on the cheek as she tried to break away from a wedding they both attended in 2019.
A spokesman for Cuomo denied that the clash alleged by Hinton took place, while claiming that she had ulterior motives to accuse him of sexual harassment.
“It didn’t happen,” said Peter Ajemian in a statement to the Washington Post. “Karen Hinton is a well-known antagonist to the governor who is trying to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with allegations made up 21 years ago.”
As for the other new charge, another Cuomo spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, did not specifically deny Liss’s account, but said it was not uncommon to kiss people affectionately.
“Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years, watching him kiss men and women and pose for pictures. At the mansion’s public reception, there are hundreds of people and he poses for hundreds of photos, ”Azzopardi told the Journal. “This is what people in politics do.”
Cuomo offered a similar explanation during a press conference held last week, the first since the scandal broke.
The governor also offered a conditional apology “if [his accusers] they were offended ”by their remarks and categorically denied having touched someone inappropriately.
He promised not to resign, as required by a bipartisan contingent of legislators and political groups.