Westchester resident Charlotte Bennett, one of former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s accusers of sexual harassment
By Dan Murphy
Two of former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s accusers say that the State Legislature should have impeached him last year when they have the chance. This comes as Cuomo ponders a political comeback, resulting in two of his victims of sexual harassment, Brittney Commisso and Westchester resident Charlotte Benett speaking out.
When Andrew Cuomo began his political rehabilitation effort with $2 Million in TV ads, and a few carefully chosen meet and greet political stops, we wondered how the former Governor would fare once his accusers returned to the media to push back on any Cuomo comeback. Now that Cuomo must decide within the next 10 days whether to try and collect 45,000 signatures to run as an independent candidate for Governor in 2022, Commisso and Bennet were interviewed for the first time since Cuomo resigned last year in a Politico interview.
When asked what she thinks if Cuomo does run again, Bennett said, “I don’t really care what he has to say. I don’t think anyone else should. It’s been over a year since I came forward and almost two since Cuomo’s sexual harassment, but I’m far from recovered. I’m still working to accept that I can’t just go back to my old life. I’m still mourning my old life. And every transcript drop, every news article, every press conference was, and is, difficult. I definitely underestimated how this would change my life. And maybe it’s because I didn’t really want to know.”
Bennett said that her “career in public service was cut short because of the governor’s sexual harassment. I really love public service and felt like I was literally kicked out of it because of what he did… I’m questioning: how does this change the way I can do good things? What can I do next, and where? I don’t have those answers.”
Impeachment of Cuomo would have also disqualified him from running for office in New York ever again. “He didn’t face accountability. He resigned just to avoid it…For New York, women showed their strength. We did the heavy lifting. The Assembly did not. We had an opportunity for accountability through impeachment, and [Speaker] Carl Heastie stalled. I’ll never forget that.”
Commisso said of Cuomo’s egotistical thoughts of a comeback less than one year after he was forced out of office. “I just have pity. It must be really sad to be him.”
With every TV ad that Andrew Cuomo runs touting his time as Governor, another TV ad will run with Charlotte Bennett or Brittney Commisso commenting on what Cuomo put them through.
NY Attorney General Tish James has called Cuomo “a liar” for recent comments he made about his victims, and her report, which validated the claims of all 11 accusers, and had James saying, “I believe the victims.”
Many NY Democrats called for Cuomo to resign after the allegations, including State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Nobody has recanted their calls for Cuomo to resign, not one prominent NY Democrat has stepped forward to support a Cuomo Part 2.
Polls have Cuomo as high as 30%, but most believe that if he does run as an independent, third party candidate for Governor, he will serve as a spoiler, resulting in Governor Kathy Hochul to lose against republican Lee Zeldin, if they are their parties nominees.
