“It has been a hard and painful period for me and my family. I am 63 years old. I’ve lived my entire adult life in public service. That’s not who I am. That’s not who I ever have been,”
“I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,”
Cuomo directly addressed Westchester native Charlotte Bennett in his video. “They read into comments I made and drew inferences that I never meant. They ascribe motives that I never had. Simply put, they heard things that I simply didn’t say. Charlotte I want you to now that I am truly and deeply sorry. I brought my personal experience into the workplace. I shouldn’t have done that.
“Trial by newspapers or biased reviews are not the way to find the facts in this manner,” he said. “I welcome the opportunity for a full and fair review before a judge and jury because this didn’t happen.”
“I’ve been making the same gesture in public all my life. I actually learned it from my mother and my father. It is meant to convey warmth. Nothing more,” he said.
“I do banter. I tell jokes — some better than others. I am the same person in public that I am in private,” he said. “I try to put people at ease. I try to make them smile. I try to connect with them. I try to show my appreciation and my friendship.”
“I accept responsibility and we are making changes. My office is no typical 9 to 5 government office and I don’t want it to be. The stakes we deal with are very high — sometimes even life and death. We have to get the job done.”
“We have a lot to do. We still have to manage the COVID beast. It is not dead yet. Our future is going to be what we make of it,”
Cuomo said that the most serious allegation from the report, that he reached under a staffers blouse and groped her, “never happened.”
“Politics and bias are interwoven throughout every aspect of this investigation. One would be naive to think otherwise, and New Yorkers are not naive.”
Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin, said “Regrettably, as the findings in the Report show, the investigators have directed an utterly biased investigation and willfully ignored evidence inconsistent with the narrative they have sought to weave from the outset. In coming to their conclusion, they ignored the Governor’s testimony and substantial corroborating evidence, and were not candid about that fact at a press conference during which they announced their findings. We have just received and are viewing the Report and will supplement this statement. But even on a quick first review, it is clear that the Report purposefully omits key evidence.”
