N.Y. women weigh admiration for Cuomo against allegations
NEW YORK — As the pandemic unfolded and Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave daily televised updates, issued mask mandates and imposed lockdown measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Marybel Hoyos, a homemaker from Long Island, N.Y., followed with approval.
On Tuesday, she was following again as the governor announced his imminent resignation after a report found he had sexually harassed 11 women — this time grappling with her admiration of the man and rage at his behavior.
“As a mother, as a woman, as a daughter, that is not acceptable,” said Ms. Hoyos, 59, from Jericho. “I was very disappointed, because he was a very good leader. But it’s not inseparable to me, as a woman, if something was wrong.”
For women in New York, a state teetering toward normalcy, news of his resignation was met with different, sometimes warring impulses. The swift defenestration of Mr. Cuomo, revered by many for his steady, if imperious, stewardship during the pandemic, seemed to some unfair, an overreaction to behavior many women routinely feel they must brush off in the workplace. To other women, the governor’s denouement was a victory, proof of the durability of the #MeToo era, driving home a point that no one is beyond reproach.
“Being a good governor isn’t enough. You have to be a good person,” said Heather Craig, 58, a senior director at an energy company who lives in Buffalo. “He thought he was exempt from repercussions.”
Via his televised pandemic addresses, the governor entered peoples’ homes at a time when they were most vulnerable, providing essential information about the virus.
The appearances were interspersed with glimpses of his own vulnerability — he shared anecdotes about his mother and three daughters muddling through lockdown life — a humanizing element for a forceful leader that elevated Mr. Cuomo to a national name.
Against that backdrop, the rapid fall of the threeterm governor, for whom a fourth term seemed a sure bet, has been that much more upending.
In a recently released report from the state attorney general, nearly a dozen women described Mr. Cuomo commenting on their appearance, touching their bodies and asking sexualized questions. One woman, a state trooper assigned to his protective detail, said he ran his finger down her neck, and another, an executive assistant, accused the governor of groping her in the executive mansion.
In his public address announcing his resignation Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo said he took “full responsibility” for his behavior, but he denied ever touching any woman inappropriately.
“In my mind, I have never crossed the line with anyone,” Mr. Cuomo said. “But I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.”
Around the state, women like Ms. Hoyos were weighing their admiration against the accusations he is facing and their own lived experiences of sexual harassment and unwanted advances, indignities that seem endemic to navigating the world as a female.
“In the government, there are a lot of strong, powerful women, and to make them feel degraded, or anything less of what he was, is disgusting,” said Destiny Russo, 27, who works at a restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village.
Ms. Russo said she empathized with the women who have come forward, because she has experienced similar harassment from men she had thought were platonic friends. “And if it’s your boss and you’re feeling pressured, and you’re like, ‘I can’t say anything?’ I could never even imagine,” she said.
In his defense, Mr. Cuomo has described himself as naturally touchy, and attributed his behavior to the cultural norms of Italian Americans. Shortly after he announced his resignation, Mr. Cuomo’s attorney, Rita Glavin, presented a slideshow of Mr. Cuomo hugging and kissing men and women, attempting to further this point.
For Madalyn Fliesler, 69, a retired college professor from Buffalo, the governor’s excuses fell short. “My husband has had to adjust his behavior in the workplace. Apparently, Cuomo didn’t,” Ms. Fliesler said. “It would have been so easy to adjust behavior with the times — and he didn’t.”
“We’ve all changed,“she continued. ”That’s part of being a society.”