New York’s Democratic governor and brother of CNN’s top presenter Chris Cuomo was considered the corona shooting star par excellence – especially among young American women. Andrew Cuomo’s daily press conference videos on the Covid situation in the US state of New York became such Internet hits among many American viewers, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, that even celebrities in distant California turned on enthusiastically every day and the democratic politician like a Hollywood Star celebrated.
In New York and all over the country, his young female fans organized regular cocktail parties on Zoom to get together in ecstasy during the 63-year-old’s daily TV speeches. In social networks, euphoric Americans of all ages asked whether the divorced father of three children was currently single and possibly still available.
Sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo
Chelsea Handler, America’s most famous comedian from Los Angeles, also called him “Incredibly sexy”. On social media, popular entertainer and best friend of Jennifer Aniston raved about Andrew Cuomo’s “Italian and therefore so masculine charisma” and described him on Twitter as “exactly the guide we all need in these uncertain times.” On TikTok, young New Yorkers called him “Daddy Cuomo” during lockdown and asked with a wink: “Who can resist him?”
But now new sexual harassment charges are surfacing every day. After recent sensational allegations that at the beginning of the pandemic the governor falsified the numbers of corona deaths in his state’s retirement homes and deliberately manipulated them downwards, a number of former and current employees are now accusing him of having touched them immorally.
Investigations into impeachment of Cuomos have already begun
Cuomo’s party comrades are already turning away from him. 40 percent of the Democrats in his state government signed a petition asking the governor to resign immediately. At the end of the week, the New York Democrats’ decision hit like a bomb: Impeachment is now on everyone’s lips – New York State has already initiated the impeachment investigation. The independent investigations, including witness interviews, led by the New York Department of Justice, could take several months.
“We take the allegations very seriously,” emphasizes Carl Heastie, the Democratic spokesman for the New York State Assembly Carl Heastie and the Mayor of New York City goes one step further: “Cuomo cannot stay a day longer in office,” says Bill De Blasio . “After all, this is not about individual cases, such as one or two accusers – there are now six women.”
Groped and grabbed under the blouse
A spokesman for the governor said: The latest allegation by a staff member that Cuomo had groped her has already been passed on to the police – according to authorities, the charges could well be placed on the level of a crime. Another employee claims that Cuomo asked her to go upstairs on the first floor of his apartment building late last year on the pretext of a technical computer problem. There he grabbed her under her blouse. The governor vehemently denies the allegations: “I have never done anything like that.”
Donald Trump should be happy about Cuomo’s negative headlines – after all, the governor of his home state is one of his biggest and loudest enemies. Meanwhile, press voices are puzzling: Why does the allegation of sexual harassment seem to break the neck of so many politicians here – only Donald Trump not yet?
“It’s very sad,” said a former follower of the governor on Instagram. During the lockdown, Cuomo gave her and her many friends great comfort. “We spent the days in pajamas and ate chips in bed – in his neat suit he somehow encouraged us.” Finally, the user asks in a resigned tone: “Can you really not trust a politician anymore?”
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