Andrew Cuomo Still Doesn’t Get Why His Workplace Harassment Was Offensive

New York Magazine profiled the NYC mayoral candidate, and it wouldn't be a Cuomo story if he didn't offer some truly delusional quotes about his sexual harassment case.

By Audra Heinrichs | March 31, 2025 | 6:36pm

Photo: Getty Images Politics

Andrew Cuomo Still Doesn’t Get Why His Workplace Harassment Was Offensive

On Monday, New York Magazine dropped a new Andrew Cuomo profile that details a purported (and partial) “reinvention” during his campaign for New York City Mayor. Earlier this month, writer David Freedlander followed the disgraced former Governor of New York, Zionist, accused sex pest, and proponent of a police state, on a series of campaign stops in Harlem. The takeaways? According to Cuomo, progressive ideology is the most pressing problem in the city, and he still thinks saying “ciao bella” to his female employees is molto bene.

After months of speculation (and at least one “fiery speech” in support of Israel), Cuomo announced the rumors of his political comeback were true in early March via a 17-minute video posted to his campaign website: “Today, it is necessary to launch a bold action plan to turn New York City around to save our city,” Cuomo said. What does said bold action plan entail? In short: Increasing the number of police officers in the subway, promising to transform the city’s public housing system, and proposing a stop to the “chaos of e-bikes.” To Freedlander, Cuomo also continued to beat the pro-cop drum, specifically pointing the finger at progressives like Bill de Blasio (a man more liberal than progressive, to be clear) for questioning the ethics and efficacy of police.

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“This extremist left wing represents no one. Who does it represent? If you are in Manhattan, or Park Slope, and it’s ‘No police; police are bad.’ That was Bill de Blasio, and it’s very popular in Park Slope, yes, but who does that help?” So, what exactly is Cuomo’s strategy? Well, the story notes that Cuomo chose to deliver a speech he referred to as “more police” to a congregation at a Baptist church in Harlem. Need I go on?

“Progressives were supposed to be about helping the poor, minorities, the disenfranchised. That’s why I wanted to do ‘more police’ in a Black church, because, by their own theory, progressives care about the poor and the downtrodden,” Cuomo said. “No, they don’t. That’s not who your policies help. And meanwhile the city is going backwards and people are leaving.” As if New York City wasn’t a place in which every system (apart from the carceral, of course) was under-funded. Or, that Cuomo didn’t have his own affordable housing, education, and racial inequity crises. Frankly, if the people who are able to leave New York are doing so because of progressive policy, I think we should let them!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Cuomo story if he didn’t, at some point or several, offer some truly delusional quotes about his sexual harassment case.

“My case goes to nine women. I didn’t even know who they were,” Cuomo told Freedlander when asked what “forced him” out of office in 2021. “I wasn’t even in a position to defend myself because they never said. I knew some of them, but ‘Was there ever a woman who on a rope line you put your arm around and took a picture? Did you ever kiss a woman on the cheek at a wedding reception?’ Literally like that. ‘Did you ever pat a woman on the waist?’”

“I mean, yeah,” he rants. “‘Did you ever kiss a woman on the cheek? Did you ever say ciao bella?’ Yeah, I probably did. But there were no names.” His statements are ridiculous for many reasons, the most important being that, actually, seven current and former state female employees with allegations against Cuomo were named out of 13 total accusers. The allegations included in Attorney General Leticia James’ investigation included: Cuomo putting his hand on, tapping, and grabbing an employee’s butt at an event; Cuomo asking another employee if she had ever cheated on her husband or if she would assist him in finding a girlfriend; and Cuomo peppering a 25-year-old aide with invasive questions about her sex life. A report by the Justice Department also found that Cuomo discriminated against women in his office and retaliated against the women who blew the whistle on his behavior. Of course, none of this seems to resonate with him.

“You see all this behavior, for a 25-year-old or younger woman with different mores and sensitivities, it’s ‘Don’t touch me’ and ‘Ciao bella is offensive’ and ‘honey’ is offensive and ‘sweetheart’ is offensive, and that is a legitimate school of thought,” he told Freedlander. “I heard that intellectually, and I got it—but I just didn’t actually get it enough.”

If anyone was in need of further evidence of how much he continues to not “actually get it enough,” nearing the end of the story, Cuomo actually made light of the allegations. As he left an event, a mother and a daughter asked him for selfies. As Freedlander notes, Cuomo then posed in “a three-sided hug.”

“I didn’t hug anybody, I didn’t kiss anybody, I didn’t touch anybody. It never happened,” Cuomo jested with, as the noted in the story, a literal wink. “I was harassed about 800 times, but that’s it.”

Cuomo is currently the front-runner in the race, according to reports. I only wish I were surprised.