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A former aide of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a damning interview last week that she believed Cuomo was angling to sleep with her and claimed he asked her questions about her sex life.
Charlotte Bennett, who worked as a health policy adviser in Cuomo’s administration until this past November, was the second woman at the time to come forward to level sex harassment claims against the governor. Lindsey Boylan, a former aide who is currently running for Manhattan Borough President, was the first to claim sexual harassment against Cuomo.
Ms. Bennett said in the interview that Cuomo asked her about her personal history as a survivor of sexual assault. She said, “So he goes, ‘You were raped. You were raped and abused and assaulted.’” Bennett also said Cuomo asked her if she had difficulty being intimate with someone because of her trauma.
“The governor asked if I was sensitive to intimacy,” she said.
Ms. Bennett, 25, pointed to an instance in June 2020 when she thought Cuomo made it clear that he wanted to sleep with her. She told CBS News he called her into the office on a Saturday and asked her about how to use an iPhone, then the two separated.
“And finally, he calls me back in and asks if I’ve found him a girlfriend yet,” she recalled. She said she responded no and that she “was working on it.”
He allegedly told her he was lonely and looking for a girlfriend.
“I thought, he’s trying to sleep with me. The governor is trying to sleep with me and I’m deeply uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible,” she said.
Norah O’Donnell, the CBS reporter, asked what made her think Cuomo wanted sex?
Ms. Bennett replied, “Without explicitly saying it, he—he implied to me that I was old enough for him and he was lonely.” She mentioned she thought the governor felt emboldened by the fawning national attention he received for his handling of COVID.
“Absolutely, I think he felt like he was untouchable in a lot of ways.”
Cuomo has denied most of the allegations against him but said he “now understands that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it. I feel awful about it, and frankly, I am embarrassed by it, and that’s not easy to say but that’s the truth.”
New Accuser
Ana Liss, a 35-year-old who works as the director of planning and development for New York’s Monroe County, told the Wall Street Journal in a story published Saturday that Cuomo once kissed her hand and asked her personal questions like if she had a boyfriend.
Ms. Liss said that at first, she didn’t pay the comments much mind, but they eventually wore on her and it began to feel as though the governor was patronizing her. She said his remarks were not appropriate in “any setting.”
Cuomo’s office seemed to take a tougher stance on Liss’s comments. The Democrat and Chronicle newspaper reported that an adviser to Cuomo issued the statement:
“Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures. At the public open house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures. That’s what people in politics do.”
TREND FORECAST: As we have noted, since last March, the Trends Journal was the first to call out Governor Cuomo for his arrogance and dictatorial mandates that have destroyed tens of thousands of New York lives and livelihoods, while the mainstream media promoted him as a star, and the Hollywood clowns awarded him an Emmy for his daily COVID B.S. updates.
We had also forecast Andrew Cuomo would not be re-elected. A political cast of wannabes is already lining up to challenge him in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
Indeed, his days as governor are numbered.