Looks 'impossible' for Cuomo to survive sexual harassment scandal: Fleischer
Former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer questions how N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo can be 'so blind in the Me Too era.'
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg attempted to summarize Monday why Democrats are not overwhelmingly calling for the resignation of Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid a pair of scandals.
Goldberg began her column by saying it "seems obvious enough" that allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate advances against Cuomo are credible and it is "hard to imagine how an inquiry could exonerate the governor."
The columnist predicted that "if this scandal had broken a few years ago, high-profile Democrats would have felt no choice but to call for Cuomo’s resignation. Since then, however, a few things have happened.
"After the killing of George Floyd and last summer’s protests, the locus of our culture wars shifted from sex to race," Goldberg added. "Tara Reade made allegations against Joe Biden which got national attention but turned out to be full of inconsistencies. And most significantly, among many Democrats, there’s tremendous bitterness toward those who pressured Al Franken to leave the Senate in 2018 after he was accused of grabbing several women’s butts."
NEW YORK GOV. ANDREW CUOMO ACCUSED BY THIRD WOMAN OF UNWANTED SEXUAL ADVANCES
It is unclear what Goldberg meant by her statement that Reade's allegations against the now-sitting president were "full of inconsistencies."
Critics slammed the Times columnist, with some on social media accusing her of throwing Reade "under the bus."
"In her latest column, @michellebklyn blames Tara Reade for the end of the MeToo movement (!!), not a partisan media class that radically and abruptly shifted its standards and approach on this issue to protect the politician it favoured. Appalling beyond words," Jacobin Magazine journalist Branko Marcetic reacted.
"Goldberg was a major part of this media push, typically by claiming that Reade's story had 'ambiguities' or was 'inconsistent' when compared to [Christine] Blasey Ford, who she personally championed. But in fact, anyone who looked at the facts of the case knows that Blasey Ford (who I find credible) had many inconsistencies in her story (one of the things Republicans used against her), didn't tell her story for decades (not even to her husband), and 3 key witnesses said they couldn't remember the party."
Marcetic continued, "At the time, there were reams of pages from liberal columnists explaining why this didn't make Ford un-credible, all of which they reversed on when it came to Reade & Biden. It's as if they mentally heaved all of Ford's issues onto Reade, who had a lot of corroborating evidence."
"The death of #MeToo is because it never was," actress Rose McGowan chimed it. "It is a communication tool. It is truth. Me & Tara Reade are a movement. Liars like you @michelelbklyn & Alyssa Milano are classist frauds who shame others who don’t pass your twisted standards of purity. #Liars #NYT"
"Siri: show me a self-identified feminist who destroyed #MeToo by engaging in rank hypocrisy including, but not limited to, applying the exact argument against Tara Reade that Republicans used against Blasey Ford & who projects her guilt onto Reade, whom she threw under the bus," progressive podcast host Katie Halper wrote.
"Scuttlebutt among elite Dems, apparently, is that we have to keep sex pest Cuomo because it was necessary to pretend the allegations against Biden weren't credible and rich donors are still pissed about Al Franken," The Week correspondent Ryan Cooper concluded.
Reade slammed Goldberg's "ridiculous" assessment of her claims, telling Fox News that the so-called "feminist icon" columnist has never even reached out to ask about the alleged 1993 sexual assault by her then-boss, Sen. Joe Biden.
"I hope that they're not going to trot out my history with Biden out every single time they want to justify not supporting survivors or not supporting an investigation for a Democrat," Reade told Fox News. "I think what's happening here is a pattern of behavior that I think the public is aware of where the #MeToo movement or that movement to hold powerful men accountable is only for certain men and they will only support certain survivors and not all survivors. And I think this has been glaringly clear. I mean, it's very clear."
She added, "The Democrats know that if they hold Cuomo responsible and ask him to resign they will have to ask the same of Biden to avoid the obvious hypocrisy of all of this."
Goldberg did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
Last year, Reade came forward with allegations that Biden sexually assaulted her back in 1993 while she served as a staffer. Both Biden and his campaign repeatedly denied her claims.
In the past week, three women accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct.
Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and a special adviser to Cuomo, accused the Democrat of making sexually charged comments, unwanted touching, and forcibly kissing her on the lips during a one-on-one briefing. Cuomo's office has denied her claims.
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Charlotte Bennett, an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration, alleged to the New York Times that the governor asked her inappropriate questions about her sex life in his office.
The third woman, Anna Ruch, told the Times that Cuomo touched her bare lower back and asked if he could kiss her during a wedding reception in 2019.