Andrew Cuomo Blames “Cancel Culture,” Not Sexual Harassment Allegations, for Calls to Resign

Since February 24, Andrew Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior by more than half a dozen women. The first, former aide Lindsey Boylan, claimed the governor forcibly kissed her on the lips. Another, Charlotte Bennett, said he asked her if she had ever had sex with older men. On Wednesday, the Times Union of Albany reported that after summoning an aide to assist him with a “minor technical issue involving his mobile phone,” Cuomo “allegedly reached under her blouse and began to fondle her.” The allegations, all of which Cuomo denies, come as the governor is reportedly under investigation for a nursing home death-count cover-up—in addition to separate accusations of simply being a bullying asshole who fosters a toxic work environment. (According to New York assemblyman Ron Kim, Cuomo threatened to destroy his career for speaking out over the nursing home scandal. On Friday New York magazine published a text exchange in which Cuomo’s top aide responded to a state senator who’d criticized the governor by calling her a “bad person” and a “revisionist liar” who had a “big mouth” and was “full of shit.”)

Not surprisingly, the calls for the governor to resign have reached a fever pitch. By the end of the week, a majority of New York Democrats, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, had demanded he quit. Yet not only has Cuomo defiantly maintained that he‘s not going anywhere, he’s now claiming he is the one who’s the victim here.

In a news conference for which Cuomo did not appear in person but called in over the phone, the governor attacked lawmakers for saying he should resign, called them “reckless and dangerous,” and said they were doing so because of “political expediency” and “without knowing any facts and substance.” Insisting that he retains the support of the people of New York, he said he would not bow to “cancel culture” just because of more than half a dozen allegations of behavior ranging from creepy to sexual harassment.

At one point during the conference, Cuomo suggested, very strangely, that he was being punished because he is “not part of the political club,” an extremely odd claim coming from the son of a former governor and a 40-year veteran of state politics. He also implied that the women who’ve made allegations against him are liars:

As Slate noted on Friday, cancel culture, as defined by its critics, “is a process in which mostly decent people are fired from their jobs or shamed into quitting because they have failed to meet impossibly high standards of progressive sensitivity.” That…doesn’t appear to be what’s happened to Andrew Cuomo here.

Jeff Bezos would rather not discuss the fact that he’s five gazillion times richer than the average Amazon employee

He especially does not want to talk about it with Bernie Sanders:

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has declined a request to discuss issues around income inequality before the Senate Budget Committee, the company confirmed to CNBC. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, had invited Bezos to appear in front of the committee as part of a hearing on income inequality slated for March 17. Bezos has faced criticism from Sanders and other lawmakers for its labor practices during the coronavirus pandemic, including ending hazard pay for frontline workers, while Amazon was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom.

The hearing, titled “The Income and Wealth Inequality Crisis in America,” will also include testimony from Jennifer Bates, a worker from Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse where employees are in the midst of a closely watched union vote…. Amazon has staunchly opposed the unionization effort. Last month, it held mandatory meetings with workers at the Bessemer facility stating the case against unionizing. The company also set up a website urging workers to “do it without dues.”

According to a report from The Washington Post, which the Amazon founder also owns, Bezos’s net worth increased by $58 billion between March 5, 2020, and March 5, 2021, largely thanks to the 500,000 warehouse workers who Amazon hired to continue to ship people’s stuff, all the while nearly 20,000 employees tested positive for COVID-19.

Surprise: Fox News doesn’t think Biden has showered Trump with enough praise for his disastrous handling of COVID-19

Report: the Manhattan D.A. is now singularly focused on taking down Trump

That‘s great news for people who’d finally like to see the ex-president held accountable for something for the first time in his life and less great news for said ex-president. Per The New Yorker:

Several knowledgeable sources told me that, in the past two months, the tone and the pace of [Cy] Vance’s grand-jury probe have picked up dramatically. A person who has been extensively involved in the investigation said, “It’s night and day.” Another source, who complained that things had seemed to stall while Vance waited for Trump to leave the White House, and then waited for his tax records, said, of the D.A.‘s office, “They mean business now.” Earlier, this source had felt that Vance’s team seemed slow to talk to some prospective witnesses. But recently, the person said, prosecutors’ questions have become “very pointed—they’re sharpshooting now, laser-beaming.” The source added, “It hit me—they’re closer.”

If Trump still had access to Twitter, this would be the moment he would lash out at Vance’s office and witch hunts though luckily, he remains banned for life.

Elsewhere!

Biden Sees Normalcy Returning by Summer as Vaccinations Surge (Bloomberg)

George Floyd’s family to receive record $27 million in settlement approved by Minneapolis City Council (Washington Post)

Elizabeth Holmes Pregnancy Likely to Delay Trial by Six Weeks (Bloomberg)

A federal agency warns Tesla tests unfinished driverless tech on its users (CNBC)

Prosecutors seek a slowdown in Capitol attack cases, calling probe the “most complex” in history (Politico)

Dating app now lets singles declare vaccination status (NYP)

Stuntman soaks in bean dip for 24 hours to save favorite restaurant (Reuters)

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