• Schneiderman spoke Sunday at event honoring Ulster County women.
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Remarks by the president of Ulster County Democratic Women at an event Sunday attended by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman unwittingly predicted his fall from grace just one day later.
“This is the year to stop the men,” Gladys Figueroa said at the Ulster County Democratic Committee’s annual spring brunch at The Chateau in Kingston. “Women are the majority voters of this country. We have been disrespected and treated like second-class citizens, as they slowly chip away at our rights.”
The event honored two women prominent in local politics — Beatrice Havranek, who has spent four decades in public service and currently serves as Ulster County attorney, and Ulster County Democratic Committee Vice Chairwoman Karen Markisenis.
Democrat Schneiderman was applauded at the brunch after he gave a highly partisan 15-minute keynote speech, much of it critical of President Donald Trump.
The fundraiser, attended by about 270 people, would be one of Schneiderman’s final public appearances as attorney general. Monday evening, Schneiderman announced his resignation less than four hours after The New Yorker magazine published an article detailing his alleged violence against four women during sexual encounters.
Schneiderman vehemently denied the charges but said he would step down at the end of Tuesday.
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, a Democratic who attended the party brunch, said Tuesday that the allegations against Schneiderman were “profoundly disappointing.”
“This really comes down to betraying the confidence that so many people of conscious have had in him,” Hein said.
Of Schneiderman speaking at the Sunday event, Hein said: “I believe he did an enormous disservice to all the wonderful people in attendance.”