Andrew Cuomo may have resigned as New York governor in disgrace over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women while in office, but it appears that his legacy may be stricken from Albany’s Hall of Governors as well.
Cuomo, who served as governor for 11 years and was a darling of the Democratic Party before his sex scandal eclipsed his status as pandemic superstar late last year, may not even be represented in the New York capital’s collection of gubernatorial portraits — if a Republican lawmaker has his way, The New York Post reported this week.
Assemblyman Doug Smith has introduced the humorously titled “Predator Portrait Prevention Act,” which, if passed, would “prevent any governor who does not complete any term for which they are elected to be displayed in the state capitol building without the approval of the legislature.”
There would be an exception for governors who die while in office, but it would most certainly apply to Cuomo, a member of one of New York’s political dynasties and son to former Governor Mario Cuomo, whose likeness graces the Hall of Governors.
“Andrew Cuomo’s picture could very well be hanging on the wall in the Hall Of Governors despite the fact that he resigned in disgrace and his predatory behavior toward women,” Smith, who hoped the bill would be bipartisan, told the Post.
“I am imagining my daughter in three to four years,” he added. “I don’t want her seeing Andrew Cuomo’s portrait there. Kids come by with field trips.”
No indeed. As you’d imagine, a great many fathers and mothers can relate.
In case you somehow missed it, Cuomo was accused of groping, kissing and asking intrusive, personal questions of several female staffers and a state trooper in his security detail as outlined in a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office last year.
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In some of the accounts, Cuomo allegedly reached up a woman’s blouse and looked down another’s; others alleged invasive questions about their sex lives, suggestions for a game of strip poker, uncomfortably intimate kissing and general inappropriate handiness.
In other words, the sort of creepy, predatory behavior that is far from becoming for any man, much less a powerful state leader and one who was a leader in the party that claims to champion women’s equality and leverages claims of sexual harassment and abuse for political gain (despite frequently coping with allegations of the very same hurled against its own members).
Cuomo has fiercely denied the allegations, even going so far as to credit his Italian heritage for any perceived missteps or, as a spokeswoman characterized it, “old-fashioned.”
Of course, “old-fashioned” behavior towards women is exactly the kind of thing that Democrats have claimed to oppose for years, yet while they’ve long since ditched the chivalry and respect for traditional gender roles, their members seem to have had a much harder time letting go of the whole base, immoral sexual objectification of women thing.
Indeed, the high-profile #MeToo movement, which was supposed to have put a stop to predatory men in power exactly like Cuomo, was rather undermined when it was revealed that one of the founders of the group Time’s Up, which was at the forefront of the campaign, had been working with Cuomo’s office to discredit its accusers.
This is why it’s not remarkable that another former Democratic governor, David Peterson, isn’t too bothered by the idea of hanging a portrait of a man who was forced to resign from the office he held for over a decade because he was accused of treating women like trash.
“He is very interested in history, and he grew up in the mansion. So he has a real personal attachment to the capitol,” Paterson told the Post, adding that Cuomo is also a big fan of the Hall of Governors and probably wants his portrait there.
Ah, I see, sure, these are totally legit reasons to show little girls visiting the capital that creepy old men can get away with groping staffers if their appreciation for history and gubernatorial portraits is robust enough.
Of course, Peterson already set the bar pretty low by noting that he would have been fine with seeing former Governor Elliot Spitzer, who resigned after federal agents discovered he was sleeping with prostitutes in 2008, grace the Hall of Governors as well.
Interestingly, he noted that while no one made any effort to feature Spitzer in the annals, it was Cuomo who would have probably prevented such a portrait from being hung if they had.
“I said to one of my friends that the only way Eliot Spitzer’s likeness could get on that wall while Andrew Cuomo is governor would be if I had drawn him into my picture,” he said. The Post noted that Cuomo and Spitzer had a notorious dislike for one another.
It’s almost as if all the left-wing establishment’s virtue signaling about respecting women is complete and utter garbage, a mere trope to be touted when it’s convenient and abandoned when it’s politically expedient — or a hot blonde with an easily bypassed blouse walks into the office, in Cuomo’s case.
Weird, isn’t it?
Good on Assemblyman Smith for making a move to prevent Cuomo from being memorialized.
If even Cuomo determined the accusations against him made him no longer fit to serve office, we can easily conclude that he is certainly not fit for the Hall of Governors.
Yet will the rest of the New York Assembly agree?
Based on the Democrat’s track record with consistency when it comes to the mistreatment of women, I don’t know about you, but I’m not holding my breath.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
