NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — While defending himself against sexual harassment allegations on Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed that making someone feel uncomfortable is not harassment.
“Harassment is not making someone feel uncomfortable. That is not harassment,” the governor told reporters at a press conference during the afternoon.
New York State law clearly states that sexual harassment is unwelcomed behavior based on a person’s gender. However, Gov. Cuomo claims “feeling uncomfortable” is not part of that definition.
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“If I just made you feel uncomfortable, that is not harassment. That is you feeling uncomfortable,” the Democrat said.
The governor has been accused by multiple women of inappropriate behavior, including subjecting some to unwanted kisses and hugs. In one of the most extreme allegations, one aide claimed Cuomo groped her after she was called to his home to fix a technical issue with a cell phone.
In March, Cuomo spoke about the allegations, saying he felt “awful” and was “embarrassed” by the accusations.
However, he has repeatedly denied the allegations and most recently said that he was “eager” to tell his side of the story in the investigations being conducted by the state Assembly and Attorney General Letitia James.
The governor has maintained that kissing people on the cheek is a customary form of greeting for him, and notes many other Italian-Americans do so as well.
On Thursday, Cuomo again denied any wrongdoing and asked people to wait for the attorney general’s report.
“I did nothing wrong [and] I never said I didn't have faith in the attorney general's investigation,” Cuomo said.
However, comments he made on May 3 directly contradicted that when he said, “I’m not telling anyone to have faith in anything.”
Meanwhile, one of Cuomo’s most prominent accusers, Charlotte Bennett, took to Twitter Thursday afternoon to slam Cuomo’s comments, saying he “broke the law.”
“When @NYGovCuomo propositioned me for sex, he broke the law,” she wrote. “It is very simple: the issue is about his actions, it is not about my feelings. He broke the law (you know, the one he signed). Apologies don’t fix that, and neither do denials.”
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