New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's excuse he was making jokes that could have been misconstrued as sexual harassment by much younger female staff members aren't a laughing matter, Rep. Claudia Tenney said Monday while comparing the Democrat leader to disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
"I think Harvey Weinstein thought he was being playful too when he was sexually harassing people," Tenney, R-N.Y., said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Albany, I worked there. We don't have interns anymore because of so many of the problems."
Calls are mounting for Cuomo's resignation after a second aide over the weekend accused him of sexual harassment. The governor said that sometimes he thinks he's "being playful" and that he makes "jokes that I think are funny," but that he meant no offense.
The Democrat governor also said he was "sorry" that some of the things he says "have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation."
"He is entitled to due process and have these allegations proven or not against him," Tenney said, but "he didn't allow that same type of due process to Supreme Court justice candidate [Brett] Kavanaugh at the time."
The lawmaker added that when taken in combination with Cuomo's other actions, including the revelations that COVID deaths in the state's nursing homes were underreported and complaints of bullying from people like Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim, it's time for Cuomo to step down.
"I have been saying he should resign for several weeks," Tenney said. "I called for his resignation a long time ago when I was a member of the assembly when he created a commission to investigate corruption and yet when it got close to him he shut down the commission to avoid having to expose what his liabilities could potentially be."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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