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One of the 11 women who accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment insisted Wednesday that he needs to be impeached “immediately” — because he is still “a danger.”
Former aide Charlotte Bennett told “Good Morning America” that Cuomo’s “victim-blaming” denial after an independent probe found he’d repeatedly kissed, groped and harassed multiple women was both “insulting” and proof that he’s “not living in reality.”
“So it’s up to us to take action, and it’s really the responsibility of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to impeach him immediately,” Bennett told George Stephanopoulos.
“And September is not soon enough — this needs to happen now. He is a danger,” she said.
“He has been an establishment political figure for so long and he rules by fear. He is scary. I was scared,” she told the ABC morning show of Cuomo’s “not appropriate” sexual behavior while she was in her early 20s.
She said that while she was an executive assistant for the state she was so “horrified” by her boss’ behavior that she “vowed to myself to never speak of this,” adding, “And that’s the reason why I no longer work there.”
While hearing “some whisperings” of other women suffering similar abuse, she said it was the public accusations made late last year by another former aide, Lindsey Boylan, 36, that led to her also coming forward.
“I actually DMed her on Twitter and we had a private conversation,” she said of the then Manhattan Borough President candidate.”
And you know, when there are two women, there are more than two — we know from experience that it’s not just one person,” she told “GMA.”
“And that’s why we need to believe every woman who makes these allegations,” she said.
She insisted Cuomo’s video denial — in which he said that her allegations “bothered me most” and he was “truly and deeply sorry” for how his treatment was interpreted — “wasn’t an apology, and he didn’t take accountability for his actions.”
“He blamed me and said that I simply misinterpreted what he had said,” she said — again insisting that in their time together the governor “was coming on to me” with inappropriate questions.
His video also “insinuated that survivors of trauma and sexual assaults can’t tell the difference between mentorship and leadership, and sexual harassment itself, which is not only insulting to me but every survivor who listened to him yesterday,” she said.
“The victim-blaming is not OK.”
She said she was “overwhelmed” hearing New York Attorney General Letitia James announce the damning findings from the exhaustive Cuomo probe.
“I had just listened to the New York State Attorney General tell me, and the 10 other women, that we were believed,” she said.
“And that was powerful and so much more important than anything that governor had to say.”
Bennett’s attorney, Debra Katz, noted how “shockingly” in his video Cuomo “blames his mother for teaching him how to kiss people inappropriately.”
“He really does not get it,” Katz said. “His performance yesterday was belligerent and made it clear that he is unfit to serve.”
In his video, Cuomo insisted he had been “trying to help” Bennett after she confided in him that she was a sexual assault survivor, conceding that his approach had been “wrong.”
But he insisted the ex-aide and her attorney “read into comments that I made and draw inferences that I never meant. They ascribe motives that I never had. And simply put, they heard things that I just didn’t say.”
“Charlotte, I want you to know that I am truly and deeply sorry,” he said. “I was trying to help.”
He also again insisted that he “never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.”
“That is just not who I am … And that’s not who I have ever been,” he said.
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