Probe turns Andy nasty
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo got defensive Wednesday when asked about the ongoing FBI investigation of his administration and the state’s handling of sexual harassment cases.
In his first appearance before the Capitol press corps in several weeks, Cuomo said he knew little about the FBI’s probe of his administration’s hiring practices and its penchant for putting gubernatorial employees on the payrolls of state agencies and public authorities.
“You know as much as I know,” Cuomo told reporters. “Every administration on the state level since Rockefeller has hired people and detailed them. The federal government does it, the White House does it, the Department of Justice does it, so that's all I know.”
Cuomo grew testy when asked why he’d hired veterans of the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns and placed them in agency positions.
“Have you been in Albany?” Cuomo sternly asked the reporter who asked the question. “Have you covered government? Do people who have political experience get hired by government or is it a new fact for you?”
Cuomo also chafed when asked about the state’s sexual harassment policies, telling a female reporter she was doing a “disservice to women” by limiting her question to the the state's handling of such cases.
“You have it going on in journalism,” Cuomo said. “What are you going to do different?”
Later, in a conference call with reporters, Cuomo tried to clarify his remarks, saying they were intended to show that harassment by government officials was “only the tip of the iceberg” and that the problem is more pervasive.
Cuomo said he would unveil an “aggressive” package of antisexual-harassment measures in his State of the State address in January. He suggested part of the package would address the issue of secret settlements used by companies and government officials to keep cases quiet.
Cuomo’s remarks came after he was asked about the controversy involving his former economic development aide Sam Hoyt, who resigned in October after being accused of sexual harassment.
A rep for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said the governor only sounded testy in the exchange because he’d been upset about the just-announced Republican congressional tax deal.