Gov. Cuomo tried to defend himself after report confirmed misconduct allegations — but it blew up in his face
On Tuesday morning, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that a four-month investigation found that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women — allegations that Cuomo is flatly denying. Cuomo, in response, released a slideshow showing examples of him touching or kissing multiple people, arguing that his actions were harmless. And that slideshow is drawing a great deal of mockery and criticism.
Some of the criticism came from Fox News' Emily Compagno, who accused Cuomo of "mansplaining" and said, "From top to bottom, the governor's response was one more example of the hubris that has carried him through not only this entire investigation but frankly, the years prior, which now, we understand brought with it a host — a workplace culture of 'toxic vindictiveness and abusiveness."
Andrew Cuomo really thought this montage was a good ideapic.twitter.com/yTzzP9mdaD— philip lewis (@philip lewis) 1628010809
Twitter has been full of criticisms of Cuomo's slideshow. Many noted that it was a strange attempt to defend against allegations of inappropriate behavior to show yourself intimately touching other people.
Here are some responses from well-known media figures:
"I do it with everyone," is an interesting defense of sexually inappropriate behavior.— Ashley Parker (@Ashley Parker) 1628010676
Hi there. If you were the Cuomo staffer asked to put together the video montage of the boss kissing random people for today\u2019s event, my DMs are open. Would be interested in hearing about how that all went down.— Sam Stein (@Sam Stein) 1628011343
So Cuomo, instead of apologizing or resigning, is holding himself up as a champion of women who have been victims of sexual harassment and assault. Unreal.— Amanda Terkel (@Amanda Terkel) 1628010219
Cuomo is now talking about the double standards that women face in the workplace. His main message that he wants people to take away is that he is a champion for women.— Amanda Terkel (@Amanda Terkel) 1628010744
Editorial note: these pictures were in the feed from the Governor's Office. We did not include these photos on our own on MSNBC.https://twitter.com/aterkel/status/1422605309139374092\u00a0\u2026— Ed Demaria (@Ed Demaria) 1628011195
