(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced Democrat former New York governor, is doubling down on his troubled handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite widespread condemnation and subsequent resignation from office amid a salacious scandal involving several sexual harassment allegations and lying about nursing home deaths.
“There was no sexual harassment,” Cuomo said in an interview with WABC AM Radio’s Rita Cosby. “It was a political report,” he added, according to a write-up by the New York Post.
Cuomo refuted an explosive report by N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James that found that he sexually harassed 11 women. The former governor also dismissed a separate report that revealed the Cuomo administration purposely undercounted COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents.
James, who ran for governor months after releasing the report, said of her findings, “I believe women, and I believe these 11 women.”
Cuomo resigned from office in August 2021 after the report was released but has remained unapologetic for his actions, which allegedly included groping. “No district attorney brought a case,” Cuomo said of accusations brought against him by a former executive assistant.
Cuomo cited cultural differences between him and his accusers as the reason why they found his actions offensive.
“That’s a fine conversation. That’s cultural boundaries,” Cuomo said. “Your opinion is not the law. The law has to be met and in my case it had to be a state employee— gender discrimination,” he added, referring to the accusers.
The Post reported that Cuomo claimed he resigned because he did not want his daughters to face a “toxic environment and the negative press.”
The disgraced governor also said he did not regret lying about the official COVID-related deaths in nursing homes.
“I was in charge of the state in the middle of this war and I take responsibility for everything that happened,” a nonchalant Cuomo said.
An audit from the N.Y. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli revealed that top officials in the state, including Cuomo, purposely mislead residents about the negative consequences of allowing COVID-positive individuals into nursing homes. At least 4,100 deaths were hidden by the Cuomo administration.
Listen to the full radio interview below:
