Lauded nationwide last year for his no-nonsense coronavirus briefings, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was clinging to his political life Wednesday as prosecutors opened criminal inquiries into s.e.xual harassment allegations against the powerful Democrat. As Donald Trump sowed chaos last spring, Cuomo’s televised pandemic press conferences comforted Americans and even led to clamor for a presidential run, but the 63-year-old now finds himself a political pariah.
New York state assembly Democrats are poised to complete an impeachment inquiry soon, while three district attorneys are pursuing criminal investigations after Tuesday’s bombshell report found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women. If you assault a woman, you do something against her will s-e-xually, that’s criminal. I think he should be charged,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told CBS on Wednesday.
The investigation concluded that Cuomo engaged in “unwelcome and non-consensual touching and making numerous comments of a suggestive sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women. It detailed allegations by 11 women that painted “a picture of a pattern of abusive behaviour by Cuomo and his senior staff,” state Attorney General Letitia James said, announcing the findings.
The three-term governor came out fighting. He insisted he never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances and suggested he would not step down in a pre-recorded statement.
But pressure continued to build on Cuomo Wednesday as prosecutors in Manhattan and Westchester County joined those in Albany in opening a criminal inquiry and requesting documents from James’s investigation, which was only civil in nature.
The Westchester case relates to an allegation that Cuomo inappropriately touched a state trooper assigned to his protective detail on her stomach and hip.
A statement from the Albany District Attorney late Tuesday called on any alleged victims to come forward. Cuomo has politics in his blood — his father Mario Cuomo served three terms as the Democratic governor of New York state between 1983 and 1994 — and is unlikely to go quietly.
He has long been part of the Democratic Party’s moderate establishment: in 1990, Cuomo married Kerry Kennedy — daughter of the late US Attorney General Robert Kennedy. They divorced 15 years later. Cuomo received praise for pushing through the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York in 2011 and for raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 in December 2019.
In other news – Death hoax brings luck to Skeem Saam actress Lydia Mokgokoloshi
Following fake news that Skeem Saam actress Lydia “Koko Mantsha” Mokgokoloshi had died, the Limpopo Artists Movement decided to honour her.
Movement president Mphoza Mashabela told Daily Sun the fake news shocked people but also made them realise Lydia needed to be honoured while she was still alive. Learn more
Source: punchng
