Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sympathized with the women who accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of inappropriate sexual behavior and said she herself was a victim of workplace harassment, adding that such behavior “cannot be tolerated.”
At least three sexual harassment allegations were levied against Cuomo over the past week, the most recent of which involved former journalist Anna Ruch, 33, who said the governor acted inappropriately toward her, and a photo emerged of the Democrat holding her face at a wedding in 2019, which she said was a moment before he asked to kiss her.
“Every woman who has been sexually harassed in a workplace setting, as I have been, understands how difficult it is for a woman to come forward and to speak her truth,” she said Wednesday. “We are way past time in this country where any kind of behavior that looks like that should be acceptable. Part of the challenge is that while we have opened up opportunities for women in the workplace, we’ve opened up opportunities in institutions made by and for men. This provides us with another opportunity to really rethink what our institutional culture and structures are.”
Lindsey Boylan, 36, a former aide to the governor, accused him of trying to kiss her and ask if she wanted to play strip poker during a 2017 flight.
Charlotte Bennett, 25, who served as an executive assistant and health policy adviser in Cuomo’s administration, alleged Cuomo asked her sexually explicit questions during the summer of 2020 in his Albany headquarters.
CUOMO TELLS FEMALE REPORTER HER QUESTION ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS A ‘DISSERVICE TO WOMEN’
Cuomo apologized to the accusers but denied allegations of inappropriate touching during a Wednesday press conference.
“I want New Yorkers to hear from me directly on this. First, I fully support a woman’s right to come forward,” he said. “And I think it should be encouraged in every way. I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional. And I truly apologize for how I feel awful about it. And frankly, I am embarrassed by it. And it’s not easy to say, but that’s the truth. But this is what I want you to know, and I want you to know this from me directly.”
“I never touched anyone inappropriately. I never knew at the time that I was making anyone feel uncomfortable,” Cuomo continued.
The accusations against the governor are a “powerful lesson” that his alleged behavior “cannot be tolerated,” Lightfoot said, adding that the reported incidents raise “some serious questions.”
“This is, I think, a powerful lesson on a very public and national, if not international, platform that sexual harassment cannot be tolerated in the workplace by anyone,” she said.
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She continued: “The fact that one of the young women immediately made a report to the chief of staff, a woman, and to the special counsel, also a woman, and that the solution was to move her to another job — I think that raises some serious questions.”
New York lawmakers on Tuesday reached an agreement to strip Cuomo of his emergency powers, an authorization that allowed him to institute mask mandates, business closures, and other policies during the coronavirus pandemic, following an investigation into the governor’s handling of nursing homes after authorities claimed he placed virus-positive individuals in elderly care facilities and undercounted the deaths that might have resulted from the order.
