Seventh Cuomo accuser claims gov ‘grabbed reporter by waist & didn’t let go’ in ‘textbook definition of sex harassment’
A FORMER Albany statehouse reporter is the seventh woman to publicly accuse New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Jessica Bakeman claims she was sexually harassed by Cuomo on multiple occasions from the start of her journalism career in 2012, and that he “never let me forget I was a woman”.
In an emotional expose for New York Magazine written in first-person, she recalled a series of inappropriate advances the Governor made towards her, that made her reluctant to attend work events.
“Andrew Cuomo’s hands had been on my body — on my arms, my shoulders, the small of my back, my waist — often enough by late 2014 that I didn’t want to go to the holiday party he was hosting for the Albany press corps at the executive mansion,” she wrote.
Bakeman was 25-years-old and working as a reporter for what is now Politico New York, tasked with “reporting on the governor’s every move.”
As she approached Cuomo to say goodbye, she claims: “He took my hand, as if to shake it, then refused to let go.
“He put his other arm around my back, his hand on my waist, and held me firmly in place while indicating to a photographer he wanted us to pose for a picture.”
The uncomfortable Albany employee decided it would be “easier to smile for a brief moment it takes to snap a picture than to challenge one of the most powerful men in the country.
“Then he turned to me with a mischievous smile on his face, in front of all of my colleagues, and said: ‘I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable? I thought we were going steady’.”
Bakeman did not believe Cuomo wanted to have sex with her, but instead thrived that he had the power to “take my dignity away at any moment with an inappropriate comment or a hand on my waist.”
Months after the initial alleged incident, Bakeman said Cuomo again made advances towards her while she was working for USA Today.
She claims he slid his arm around her as they talked with male colleagues at a party at the Executive Mansion in 2012.
“He left it there, and kept me pinned next to him, for several minutes as he finished telling his story.
“I stood there, my cheeks hot, giggling nervously as my male colleagues did the same. We all knew it was wrong, but we did nothing.”
As their professional relationship continued over a number of years, Bakeman says the Governor persisted in his behaviour.
“Sexual harassment is so ubiquitous in Albany we often don’t call it what it is. In the course of my reporting, Cuomo never let me forget I was a woman,” she wrote.
He once mocked her for having a purple phone rather than answering her question at a press conference, Bakeman claims.
On another occasion, she said the Governor “publicly humiliated” her after she shouted over a male Albany colleague.
“I just enjoy how you shut up Ken Lovett, to tell you the truth,” Cuomo allegedly told her at the time.
Bakeman said there is a stark difference in the treatment of Cuomo’s male and female colleagues, and that “the way he bullies and demeans women is different.”
“He uses touching and sexual innuendo to stoke fear in us. That is the textbook definition of sexual harassment.”
The seventh accuser’s statement comes just after Cuomo again refused to resign from his position, despite top Democrats demanding he does so.
“I’m not going to resign. I was not elected by the politicians, I was elected by the people,” he said during a Covid briefing on Friday afternoon.
The New York governor’s statement came after 11 Democrats called on Cuomo to resign over mounting sexual harassment allegations.
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However, Cuomo said: “Politicians who don’t know a single fact, but still form a conclusion and an opinion are in my opinion reckless and dangerous.”
It comes after the state Assembly opened an investigation into the allegations against the 63-year-old Democrat and his handling of nursing home deaths.
Cuomo encouraged Americans to “respect” and wait for the outcome of the independent investigation into the allegations before condemning him, as there could then be “a discussion of facts.”