New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has found him engulfed in two scandals: one over his disastrous nursing home policies that resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 residents, the other being the number of mounting sexual assault allegations lobbed against him.
Journalist Michael Shnayerson, the author of a biography on Cuomo, penned an opinion piece in Vanity Fair about the governor’s behavior.
According to Shnayerson, Cuomo likes being in trouble and tends to manipulate his staff against each other. He’s known for going to great lengths to win his fight, just like his father, former NY Gov. Mario Cuomo, did. He claims that 61-year-old Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, slept in a locked bathroom on several nights after Cuomo, 63, refused to leave the house when she told him she wanted a divorce.
‘I’ve been a human rights activist, and for women who have abusive husbands,’ Kennedy, a prominent human and women’s rights activist, allegedly told a friend, ‘and here I am enduring this abuse.’
He also claims that Cuomo tried to punish Kennedy after the divorce was announced by leaking stories to the press about how she had an affair with a ‘Republican polo player’ so that the public would blame her, and the split would not harm his political career.
Shnayerson looked back on the stories he had unearthed while writing his 2015 Cuomo biography ‘The Contender’ this week after a seventh woman came forward accusing the governor of sexual harassment.
It also came after 30 other women spoke out about the abusive treatment they had endured while working for his office.
From Vanity Fair:
Around the end of his time at HUD, in 2001, his wife, Kerry, wanted out. Her problems with her husband were strictly personal. He hadn’t done the modest things she had asked of him as the father of their daughters: visiting their schools, for one; reading a book on parenting, for another. “Kerry was done being ridiculed and belittled,” said someone close to the couple. “Either Andrew would work on the marriage or he wouldn’t, and the two would divorce.”
The next year Cuomo ran for governor. He was unsuccessful. And immediately after he dropped out of the primary, Kerry demanded a divorce.They were living separate lives, but for six months Andrew refused to leave the house or respond to her lawyers. On more than one night during that period, Kerry slept in a locked bathroom, according to a source close to the family, who recounted instances of physical abuse. “I’ve been a human rights activist, and for women who have abusive husbands,” Kerry told a friend, “and here I am enduring this abuse.”
A spokesperson to the governor has denied the allegations laid out by Shnayerson and claimed that the ‘rumors’ around their divorce have all been proven ‘untrue’.
‘The divorce was over 15 years ago and was tabloid fodder for weeks with all sorts of untrue rumors circulating. Time has proven them all false,’ the spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
‘Andrew is a great father and his daughters will be the first to say that Kerry and Andrew have been great co-parents – and time showed those who spread the rumors were actually the problem.’
Shnayerson also revealed further information on the governor’s alleged bullying antics in previous years, including how he would give offensive nicknames to other high-powered New York lawmakers.
He reportedly called New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli ‘Chipmunk Balls’ and joked that then-attorney general Eric Schneiderman looked like he was wearing makeup when in fact, Schneiderman had a condition that forced him to use eye drops.
Cuomo’s abuse as assistant secretary at the HUD allegedly included calling older colleague ‘white heads’, ‘f–kheads’ or ‘dumb f—ks’.
‘I’ve dealt with a lot of macho guys in my family,’ one staffer told Shnayerson. ‘I can spot them a million miles away. I was just surprised that someone like that had gotten to be secretary.’
Shnayerson revealed how he himself had fallen foul of Cuomo’s power plays after he was asked by the governor to push back the publication of his biography on him.
Cuomo had allegedly told Shnayerson that if the author would hold off until the governor’s own book was published, he would grant him on the record interview time.
Yet he claims the governor ‘pulled a fast one’ and never gave the interview.
This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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