Cuomo’s apology, defense draws criticism | National and global news

[ad_1]

NEW YORK He said his actions were misinterpreted, his words misunderstood. He said it was cultural: he kisses, he kisses, he says Ciao, bella. He said it was generational: sometimes he falls in love or in love or tells bad jokes.

We will not be moved by Governor Cuomo’s attempts to use the stories of survivors, including those he harassed, as a shield for his own misconduct and abuse of power while claiming the harassment was a misunderstanding, said an open letter to be released Thursday by the National Womens Law Center and several women’s and survivor groups, demanding the resignation or removal of Democratic governors.

In these moments, the survivor stories are the ones that should be elevated, Burke said. There are 11 women, whose stories have been corroborated, who were harassed by the governor. His family history does not exonerate him, and he cannot use someone else’s trauma as his own shield.

The allegations investigators said they corroborated ranged from inappropriate comments to forced kissing and trial and error.

In a statement recorded Tuesday, Cuomo denied ever touching anyone inappropriately, but apologized to two accusers, including former staff member Charlotte Bennett. He said he asked Bennett about his love life in a misunderstood attempt to help him cope with the trauma of a past sexual assault. He spoke of a family member, around the same age, who was sexually assaulted in high school.

I thought I could help him through a difficult time, the governor said of Bennett.

Emily Martin, vice president of education and workplace justice at the NWLC, said Cuomo is suggesting he is a hero for survivors of sexual assault, which is a particularly disturbing decision given all of the above. what this report found.

In some ways, it reminds me of the father of daughters comments we hear from so many men in power, Martin said, that we should take them at their word that they care about these issues based on their own. personal family relationships.

Bennett herself called Cuomo’s apology meaningless.

If he was sorry, he would withdraw. This is how accountability works, she told the AP immediately after the remarks.

Elaborating on ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday, Bennett said: He insinuated that survivors of trauma and sexual assault cannot tell the difference between mentoring and leadership and sexual harassment itself, which is not only insulting to me but to all the survivors who listened to it yesterday.

Marissa Hoechstetter was one of those survivors. She said she was saddened by Cuomo’s reference to assaulting his family because I don’t want to diminish those experiences. But, the New York reform advocate added, two things may be true. You may have someone in their family who suffered sexual harm, and they could have caused that harm as well.

You feel so drained when you see the trauma of people trotting around trying to explain another person’s legitimate voice, Hoechstetter said.

Deborah Tuerkheimer, a law professor at Northwestern University specializing in sexual misconduct, saw Cuomos’ remarks as part of a larger strategy to discredit his accusers and save his political career.

We often rely on a set of long-held misconceptions about attackers as monsters without any redemptive quality, “Tuerkheimer said. Whenever an accused looks different from this imaginary monster, they were more prone to doubt. allegations against him. And the accused men often tapped strategically. into this cultural bias by emphasizing, as proof of innocence, their best qualities, including, perhaps, empathy for victims of sexual assault .

For Indira Henard, director of the DC Rape Crisis Center, the case against Cuomos’ statement was simple: you can’t support survivors in one sentence and discredit them in another.

If you stand up and believe in the survivors, then you believe in the survivors, ”said Henard. You cannot take their story apart.

Many also questioned the effectiveness of other parts of Cuomo’s taped statement, which was accompanied by a slideshow of him hugging and kissing people in a benign setting.

I kiss people on the forehead, he says. I kiss people on the cheek. I kiss people on the hand. I embrace people. I say occasionally, Ciao, bella. “

Evan Nierman, CEO and chairman of Red Banyan, a crisis public relations firm based in Florida and Washington, DC, called it bold Cuomo’s claim that this is some kind of hug in series and therefore none of the claims could be true because he hugs and kisses everyone.

There is a big difference between proper physical contact and the types of allegations that have been made against the governor, “said Nierman,” and so I don’t think most people are going to confuse the two.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

[ad_2]