Two more former aides alleged sexual misconduct against New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday.
A former governor’s press officer, Karen Hinton, told The Washington Post that Cuomo called her in her “dimly lit” hotel room and hugged her twice after a work event in 2000.
Hinton said that she stepped away from Cuomo and he pulled her back into his body, hugging her before she retreated out of the room.
Peter Ajemian, Cuomo’s director of communications, aggressively denied the charges in a statement to The Post.
“It didn’t happen,” he said. “Karen Hinton is a well-known antagonist to the governor who is trying to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with claims made 21 years ago. All women have the right to introduce themselves and tell their story – however, it is also the responsibility of the press to consider self-motivation. This is unwise. “
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In response to the denial of Cuomo’s office, Hinton said that “attacking the accuser is the classic handbook for powerful men who try to protect themselves”.
At the same time, another former advisor, Anna Liss, said that when she worked for Cuomo as a policy and operations advisor from 2013 to 2015, the governor asked if she had a boyfriend, touched her back and kissed her hand when she stood up from your desk.
Liss said he initially thought Cuomo’s flirtations were harmless, but over time he found them condescending. She said it reduced her from an educated professional to “just a skirt”.
“It is not really appropriate in any scenario,” she said.
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In response to Liss’ account, Cuomo’s spokesman Richard Azzopardi told The Wall Street Journal: “Reporters and photographers covered the governor for 14 years, watching him kiss men and women and pose for photos. At the public reception of the mansion, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of photos. That’s what people in politics do. “
Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to speak out publicly and plead with the governor for repeated sexual misconduct, said she was “very proud” of Liss for performing.
“I am very proud of Ana Liss. She is brave and speaks for me too ”, she wrote on Twitter. “‘I only wish – I wish that@NYGovCuomotook me seriously, ‘she said. It is extremely destructive that our boss, the governor of New York, treated us this way. “
“Renounce your disgusting monster, @NYGovCuomo“she added in a subsequent tweet.
Meanwhile, two male advisers told the Post that the governor routinely used explicit language to scold them, calling them “sissies” and saying, “You don’t have balls.”
Hinton said that Cuomo’s press conference this week, where he sounded grumpy and apologized when talking about the accusations, “drove me crazy”.
She said that Cuomo knew him better and was using flirting to manipulate the people around him.
“I really thought that flirting was not about having sex,” she said. “It was about controlling the relationship.”
“Now I understand that I acted in a way that made people uncomfortable. It was not intentional and I really and deeply apologize for it. I feel terrible about it and, frankly, I’m ashamed of it,” said Cuomo in his press conference Wednesday- market.
Still, he denied having touched anyone inappropriately.
In the days before the press conference, former aide Lindsey Boylan, who in addition to accusing the governor of making repeated sexual innuendo to her, accused Cuomo of kissing her on the lips and “going out of his way to touch me. back, arms and legs. “Anna Ruch, 33, said Cuomo put her hands on her back and tried to kiss her at a wedding in 2019. Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former Cuomo employee, said Cuomo had talked about her willingness to have relationships with women in their 20s.
But Cuomo said that kissing is “my usual and customary way of greeting.”
“You can find hundreds of pictures of me kissing people, men and women. It’s my usual way of saying hello. By the way, it was my father’s way of greeting the governor of this state,” said Cuomo.
“However, I also understand that it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter my intention, it matters if someone was offended by it … If they were offended by it, it was wrong,” he continued.
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Cuomo said that in the face of these new accusations and the nursing home scandal, he is not willing to resign.
“I will not resign. I work for the people of the state of New York. … We have COVID, we have recovery, we have reconstruction, we have an oscillating New York city.”
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