A former aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo is claiming that he sexually harassed her. The Hill. Lindsey Boylan, who is now running for Manhattan borough president, said that Cuomo had made remarks about her appearance and said they should play "strip poker" during a flight. Cuomo had three witnesses that said that nothing happened during those flights. She also said that Cuomo would regularly touched her and had even kissed her without her consent. The accusations are not new but were not detailed by Boylan until now.
Boylan's post on medium can be found here.
My Comment:
I'm of two minds on this incident. On the one hand it's very clear that everyone is turning on Andrew Cuomo, including people in his own party. On the other it's also pretty clear that this accusation is very weak.
Far be it for me to actually question an accusation of sexual harassment but this is hardly proven. Not only did Boylan not provide any witnesses or physical proof of bad behavior Cuomo had three witnesses saying that he didn't do anything. It's not even a he said/she said incident it's a she said/he said +three witnesses.
That's not enough for me to cancel Andrew Cuomo. It doesn't clear him, not by a longshot, but it does not convict him either. It's clear that Boylan was angry with Cuomo but that doesn't mean she is telling the truth.
Indeed, this fits the pattern of the media trying to assassinate someone's reputation. We saw the same thing with President Trump and Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. Very weak accusations of sexual misbehavior that aren't easily proven or disproven by their very nature. It's a very powerful weapon because people hate accusations of sexual misconduct.
But could they be true? Of course. Cuomo is a rich powerful man with a huge ego. It's very possible he sexually harassed Lindsey Boylan. Plus he's a Democrat who supports woman's rights, a group of people that have a very bad track record of harassing people. I wouldn't be surprised if the incident did happen, even if that I don't think it's right to convict him without evidence.
What is clear though is that the media and the Democratic Party has totally turned on Andrew Cuomo. The nursing home scandal is a career ender and it's clear that Cuomo pissed off the media and the Democrats when he lied about what happened there. Threatening people in his own party was a huge mistake and I don't blame the Democrats for turning on him.
But I think it more is about Cuomo not living up to the hype that was built up around him. He was supposed to be a presidential front runner later in his career (2024 maybe?) but he did not live up the legend the media built him out to be. He was supposed to be the man who single handedly ended the Coronavirus in New York but instead he killed grandma in the nursing homes. Not living up the image the media built him up to be was more damaging than anything else because if there is one thing the media hates it's being made a fool out of.
I think Cuomo is done. The nursing home scandal isn't going away and I am guessing more women will come forward with sexual misconduct accusations of various levels of seriousness and believability. There are already calls for Cuomo to resign, even from his own party. It's possible he can turn things around but I think his political career is done.
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