Cuomo's Goodbye: Taking Credit for Marriage, Tainting LGBTQ+ Leaders

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ADVOCATE: The soon-to-be ex-governor takes many people, along with his dignity, down with him.

I’ve lived in New York City for 28 years, and during that time we have had five governors, starting with Gov. Mario Cuomo. Once, when I was standing on the corner of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, the police were holding people off the street, as they normally and frequently do, when a motorcade went by.

As I stood there waiting, I glanced to my right, and lo and behold, it was Mario Cuomo, and at that moment, the motorcade drove by carrying his successor, Gov. George Pataki. “That used to be you,” I said to former Gov. Cuomo. He laughed and said, “Yes, that used to be me.”

We won’t be seeing cops halt pedestrian traffic for his son’s motorcade to go by. Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned, finally, after what feels like a tidal wave of accusations, investigations, and revelations. Why would someone hang on with so much overwhelming evidence against him, so many fingers pointing at him, and so many people digging into him?

Everyone but the pope has called for Cuomo to step down. When the state’s attorney general released the report about the investigation into sexual harassment by the soon-to-be former governor, the evidence was vast. And when that report became public, Cuomo released a tone-deaf video denying that he ever did anything wrong, and then a laughable addition to that video showing him kissing every man and woman in public life — except the pope.

That video was cringeworthy, and his pathetic defense of himself deplorable. How did anyone in their right mind counsel him that those videos were the right things to do? » | John Casey | Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Railing at Enemies and Pleading for Time: Inside Cuomo’s Final Days

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo with his daughter, Michaela, in Manhattan on Tuesday after announcing his resignation. Credit...Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Behind the scenes, the governor vacillated between defiant and defeated, eventually accepting that his formidable political army had fallen away.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was wearing everyone down.

He was being wronged, he railed to advisers over the weekend, and with few allies left to defend him publicly after a damning state attorney general’s report into allegations of sexual harassment, he feared voters were getting an unshakable impression, according to people with direct knowledge of his conversations. Everyone was talking about 11 women, he complained privately, but only a handful of accusations were truly damaging in a vacuum, he felt. And those he saw fit to fight.

Never mind the toll that the report was having on some of those closest to Mr. Cuomo, including his brother, Chris Cuomo, the CNN host whose familial counsel on the allegations caused an outcry, and his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, who had already been considering stepping down for weeks. Never mind that a new revelation from the investigation — that Mr. Cuomo had harassed a female trooper on his security detail — had astonished even those who knew him best.

The governor’s circle had always been small to the point of claustrophobic. But increasingly, on the question of resign or fight, Mr. Cuomo was becoming a coalition of one. At times, he spent the last days effectively forum shopping among advisers — telling them he wanted to stay and that he believed he should be allowed to, then waiting for them to tell him he was right. Most had given up on trying to talk him out of it, even if they were not encouraging him to press on. » | Matt Flegenheimer, Maggie Haberman, William K. Rashbaum and Danny Hakim | Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Cuomo Resigns Amid Scandals, Ending Decade-Long Run in Disgrace

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said his resignation would be effective in 14 days. The announcement came after a report from the state attorney general found he had sexually harassed 11 women. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will be sworn in to replace him. CreditCredit...Byron Smith/Getty Images
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Gov. Andrew Cuomo was unable to withstand a cloud of sexual harassment allegations that led most of his allies to abandon him.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said Tuesday he would resign from office, succumbing to a ballooning sexual harassment scandal that fueled an astonishing reversal of fortune for one of the nation’s best-known leaders.

Mr. Cuomo said his resignation would take effect in 14 days. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, will be sworn in to replace him.

“Given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing,” Mr. Cuomo said from his office in Manhattan. “And therefore that’s what I’ll do.”

The resignation of Mr. Cuomo, a three-term Democrat, came a week after a report from the New York State attorney general concluded that the governor sexually harassed nearly a dozen women, including current and former government workers, by engaging in unwanted touching and making inappropriate comments. The 165-page report also found that Mr. Cuomo and his aides unlawfully retaliated against at least one of the women for making her complaints public and fostered a toxic work environment. » | Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Cuomo’s Top Aide, Melissa DeRosa, Resigns as He Fights to Survive

Melissa DeRosa was the highest appointed official in New York before her resignation and frequently appeared with Gov. Andrew Cuomo at his pandemic briefings. Credit...Cindy Schultz for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The governor’s strategist helped lead efforts to retaliate against one of the women who accused him of sexual harassment, the attorney general’s report found.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, said late Sunday that she had resigned, a move that came as the governor fought for political survival after a report from the New York State attorney general concluded he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women.

Her resignation meant that Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, lost one of his most loyal aides and trusted strategists while facing an imminent threat of impeachment in the State Legislature and calls to step down from a constellation of top officials in his party, including President Biden and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Ms. DeRosa had stood by the governor’s side for years even as his inner circle shrank in size and many of the top staffers who had helped first elect him in 2010 left the administration.

The state attorney general report found that Ms. DeRosa had spearheaded efforts to retaliate against one of the women who had spoken out publicly about her allegation in December. » | Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Sunday, August 8, 2021

Sordid! I can think of no other word for this.

It must have come to your attention that almost all of these sexual harassment cases involve straight men who cannot control themselves or their sexual urges. They never seem to be about two homosexual men.

This misbehaviour is quite disgusting! Seeing two men, or two women, kissing and expressing their true love and affection for each other is rather tame in comparison with such awful stories of lewdness. – © Mark

Vorwürfe der sexuellen Belästigung: Erste Frau erstattet Strafanzeige gegen Andrew Cuomo

Immer mehr Frauen – die meisten davon sind frühere Mitarbeiterinnen des Gouverneurs – werfen New Yorks Gouverneur Andrew Cuomo sexuelle Belästigungen vor | © Timothy A. Clary / AFP
STERN: New Yorks Gouverneur Andrew Cuomo steht mit dem Rücken zur Wand: Eine Untersuchung hat ihn der sexuellen Belästigung für schuldig befunden. Eine Mitarbeiterin hat jetzt gegen ihn Strafanzeige erstattet.

Der Gouverneur des US-Bundesstaates New York, Andrew Cuomo, gerät durch die Vorwürfe sexueller Belästigung immer stärker unter Druck. Eine der Frauen, die dem prominenten Vertreter der Demokratischen Partei sexuelle Zudringlichkeiten vorwerfen, stellte nun Strafanzeige gegen ihn, wie ein Polizeivertreter am Freitag der Nachrichtenagentur AFP mitteilte. Bei der Frau handelt es sich um eine Mitarbeiterin des Gouverneurs.

Sie gehört zu den elf Frauen, die in einem offiziellen Untersuchungsbericht mit Belästigungsvorwürfen gegen Cuomo zitiert worden waren. Die am Dienstag veröffentlichte Untersuchung war im Auftrag der Generalstaatsanwältin des Bundesstaats New York, Letitia James, von zwei unabhängigen Juristen geführt worden. Andrew Cuomo weist alle Vorwürfe zurück » | jek AFP | Samstag, 7. August 2021

New Yorks Gouverneur Cuomo drohen Strafverfahren

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Nachdem eine offizielle Untersuchung Andrew Cuomo der sexuellen Belästigung mehrerer Frauen für schuldig befunden hat, drohen dem Gouverneur von New York nun auch strafrechtliche Konsequenzen.

Nachdem eine offizielle Untersuchung Andrew Cuomo der sexuellen Belästigung mehrerer Frauen für schuldig befunden hat, drohen dem Gouverneur von New York nun auch strafrechtliche Konsequenzen. Mindestens drei regionale Staatsanwaltschaften im Bundesstaat New York, in Manhattan, Westchester County und Albany County, beantragten nach Angaben vom Mittwoch bei Generalstaatsanwältin Letitia James Beweismaterialien zur Prüfung. » | Quelle: dpa | Donnerstag, 5. August 2021