“At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny,” a new statement, released on by Cuomo on Sunday evening, reads. “I do, on occasion, tease people in what I think is a good natured way.”
“I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended,” Cuomo continued. “I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.”
Cuomo also asked that anyone harassing Bennett for coming forward with her account immediately stop.
This is an obvious shift in tone from just 48 hours ago, when Cuomo insisted he “never made advances toward Ms. Bennett, nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate.” In December, when former advisor Lindsey Boylan made allegations similar to Bennett’s, Cuomo’s office said there was “simply no truth” to her claims. What has changed?
Cuomo now faces an independent investigation from New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office; after coming under fire for appointing a judge of his choice to the case, he has asked James to tap a private lawyer instead. So far, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki are among those who have expressed support for the investigation.
Cuomo’s new statement is undoubtedly concerned with liability; but it is also part of the carefully choreographed dance Democratic men often perform when they find themselves on the receiving end of sexual misconduct allegations. Having supported the #MeToo movement in the past (and wanting to distinguish themselves from their Republican colleagues) they often find themselves supporting women’s right to “speak out” while simultaneously denying that what they say is true—an objectively untenable position.
Or, as in Cuomo’s case, they might find themselves attempting to craft an apology in the same way they might defuse a bomb, expressing enough remorse to be exonerated, but not so much that they admit guilt.
