Mary Margaret Olohan
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that “harassment is not making someone feel uncomfortable” as he addressed #MeToo allegations leveled against him by numerous women.
The New York Democrat took questions from reporters Thursday after giving a coronavirus update in the Bronx, where he emphasized that he “never said anything” that he believes “is inappropriate.”
“You can leave this press conference today and say, ‘Oh, the governor harassed me.’ You can say that,” Cuomo told a reporter. “I would say I never said anything that I believed was inappropriate, I never meant to make you feel that way. You may hear it that way, you may interpret it that way, and I respect that.”
The governor also disputed the definition of harassment.
“Harassment is not making someone feel uncomfortable,” he said. “That is not harassment. If I just made you feel uncomfortable, that is not harassment. That’s you feeling uncomfortable.”
Accuser Lindsey Boylan criticized Cuomo Thursday for his remarks, tweeting that Cuomo is “using the power of his office to abuse and to validate abuse.”
“His national microphone makes his message far more damaging than just to the people he has directly abused,” Boylan said. “It is damaging if we accept it. The governor should be removed.”
The embattled governor is being investigated by both the state attorney general’s office for allegations of workplace sexual misconduct and by the Department of Justice for his role in knowingly undercounting the deaths of New York nursing home patients.
Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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