Monday, March 8, 2021 at 11:39 AM
Par naoufal enhari
New York – After garnering US and international media attention for his fight against the Covid-19 pandemic last year in New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo today appears destined for a long trek through the desert after being accused of sexual harassment by three women, a scandal that has seriously damaged his reputation and risks ending his political career suddenly.
These accusations raised a real politico-media storm against the Democratic governor, his detractors and even several elected officials of his party who called for his resignation.
Andrew Cuomo has also been under fire for some time as a result of his administration’s handling of the nursing home situation in the early months of the pandemic, when thousands of older people died of the disease in Canada. within these establishments.
The most publicized governor of the United States is accused of covering up the true death toll from Covid-19 in nursing homes in New York, a state with a large population of elderly people, the first victim of the pandemic in terms fatalities.
But the bulk of the governor’s trouble seems to come from accusations against him by three women, including two former collaborators, since the end of last month.
Lindsey Boylan, a 36-year-old former economic adviser who is currently running for president of the Manhattan borough, was the first to step up to accuse the governor of inappropriate behavior towards her when she worked with him between 2015 and 2018.
Then another 25-year-old ex-employee, Charlotte Bennett, argued that Mr Cuomo, 63, made advances on her last year. The young employee said she complained to governor’s advisers, who then transferred her to another post on the opposite side of the building housing her administration’s offices in Albany.
The third accuser, Anna Ruch, 33, who has never worked for the governor, also lambasted the politician’s behavior at a wedding party in 2019.
Seized of these complaints, the Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, began an investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against the governor, and indicated that she intends to make public her findings.
But, the elected Democrats of New York, many of whom are furious following these complaints of sexual harassment but also by the mode of governance and the temperament of the governor, considered aggressive and intimidating, pressured for him to leave office.
“I was not elected by politicians, I was elected by the people of the state of New York, I will not resign”, replied Governor Cuomo, at a press conference last week. .
He said “deeply apologize” for hurting some women. “I had no idea at the time that I was making anyone uncomfortable. I never wanted to offend anyone, hurt anyone, or hurt anyone, ”he argued.
Andrew Cuomo, who has run New York State since 2011, called on New Yorkers to wait for the conclusions of the investigation into the charges “before forming an opinion” on him.
But the damage seems to be already done. The reputation of the governor, whom many saw as a serious future candidate in the presidential election, took a setback following these accusations, especially in a state very sensitive to the issue of women’s rights.
According to several observers, the governor will obviously face a serious challenge if he were to run for an unprecedented fourth term in 2022 in New York. But most believe he won’t be back on track again, and if more accusations emerge he may not even be able to complete his current tenure as governor.
Already, his authority will soon decrease a notch, in the sense that local elected officials recently announced an agreement to deprive him of the special powers that the Parliament of the state of New York granted him at the start of the pandemic.
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