ELLA BRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Andrew Cuomo, the 56th governor of the state of New York, has recently been facing sexual harassment allegations from multiple women over the course of the past few weeks. Most of New York’s congressional delegation across the country are demanding his resignation.
The accusations towards Gov. Cuomo include sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior, stemming from multiple women, including both current and former state employees. Letitia James, New York’s state attorney general, has opened an investigation into the claims and named two outside lawyers to lead them.
Gov. Cuomo has refuted every single one of these claims and resisted the calls for his resignation, surmounting it to a result of political differences and the negative effects of a newly emerging ‘cancel-culture’. The only apology he has issued thus far is for “acting in a way that made people feel uncomfortable”.
While some of the claims against the 64-year-old governor include only verbal harassment, others are more physical and explicit. In October 2017, Lindsey Boylan, a former administration aide, wrote in an online essay a myriad of uncomfortable and inappropriate interactions she has had with Gov. Cuomo spanning from 2015 to 2018. Boylan wrote that Mr. Cuomo told her they should “play strip poker” during a flight from an event in Western New York.
Boylan also wrote that, in 2018, Cuomo gave her a kiss on the lips that was unexpected and not consented to.
“As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips,” wrote Boylan.
She also wrote that he had gone “out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs.”
The governor’s office has denied these allegations, as well as the several others that have surfaced.
This isn’t the only scandal the governor is facing. Earlier in the year, it was released in a 76-page report that New York’s Department of Health underreported the deaths relating to the coronavirus as much as 50%.
The report contains allegations that the nursing homes failed to isolate residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and also demanded that employees who reported symptoms of feeling sick had to continue to come to work, under the threat of termination.
The report also claims that nursing homes in New York had insufficient protective equipment for their staff, insufficient testing materials for their residents, and lack of compliance with an order requiring communication with residents’ family members.
This scandal is, along with the sexual assault allegations, is currently being investigated.
One of the most interesting facts of these scandals and allegations plaguing Gov. Cuomo is that the demand for his resignation is bipartisan. In a country currently gripped by political unrest, extremely divided with their citizens on “one side or the other,” both elected officials of the Republican Party and Cuomo’s fellow Democrats are calling for him to step down. On March 12, nearly every Democrat in New York’s congressional delegation said that Mr. Cuomo had lost the ability to govern.
Women at Alma College are also voicing their displeasure with the conduct of New York’s governor.
“Men can be so disgusting in terms of how they use their power,” said Sophia Liolli (‘22). “If they have too much power, they can pull terrible events like these, which can traumatize a victim for years or even decades.”
“I think it’s sad to say that I’m not surprised that Cuomo is being accused of sexual assault,” said Racheal Vanloo (‘24). “It seems that almost every man in power is getting a light shined on him and now we’re finding out the disturbing truth.”
