New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo – He’s Not the Worst #MeToo Man But his PR is Near the Bottom

Andrew Blum

When you look at all the #MeToo men who did bad things to women – and some to men – there are gradations of evil. Al Franken is not Harvey Weinstein, and Louis CK is not Jeffrey Epstein. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a relatively recent addition to the #MeToo list, acted very badly to 11 women, according to a just completed investigation but he’s not worst. What he is horrible at was spinning the probe and its findings.

All during the investigation, he held public events like nothing was wrong, often not letting the press attend or ask questions. Then on August 3, after New York Attorney General Letitia James released a 165-page report accusing him of the sexual harassment, he released a pre-recorded video in which he showed no remorse, did not apologize, issued a flat-out tone-deaf denial, made no admission of his behavior, and sounded like he never heard of #MeToo or sexual harassment. He refused to resign. This prompted all his local, state and federal allies among Democratic Party officialdom, voters, unions and donors to all but desert him in the face of almost certain impeachment by the state legislature. They all called for him to resign – right up to and including President Biden. About the only person who said Cuomo should not resign was Rudy Giuliani!

I think it is because of the #MeToo movement and thePR ramifications of the bad behavior of powerful men of his ilk that Cuomo received such a public and political rebuke of his actions after the report issued by the NY Attorney General. And his doubling down made it worse.

It got even bleaker for Cuomo on August 6 – after several district attorneys in New York state launched their own investigations, one of his accusers filed a criminal complaint over his actions. And the media piled on too – the New York Post started keeping track of how many days it has been since Cuomo refused to resign with the heading “Days The Creep has refused to resign” – it was three days as of August 6. The Post also recounted that along with Cuomo’s brother Chris – a CNN anchor – several well-known Democratic political PR and lobbying executives were part of an “inner circle” of outside Cuomo advisors helping him during the investigation.

Cuomo has long had a reputation of being a control freak and a bully, but during the early days of COVID-19, he became a media hero and an icon – with his daily COVID updates becoming must see TV. Then he went off the rails – writing a self- congratulatory memoir on COVID (payday: $5.1 million) with the help of his taxpayer-paid staff to write and edit the tome, came under investigation for fudging COVID death numbers in nursing homes, and then the drip-drip-drip of alleged sexual harassment of women.

When the AG’s report came out the most shocking and stupefying part of it was that among the 11 women the governor sexually harassed a New York state trooper on his security detail – while she was carrying a gun as part of her duties.

#MeToo may be having another watershed moment. With the Harvey Weinstein conviction and a second trial pending for him on other charges, and even the release of Bill Cosby after serving a partial sentence, the public won’t stand for behavior like Cuomo’s. And his video response to the AG report was so bad from a PR point of view that it isolated him even more. If one of the only people now speaking out against him resigning as governor is Giuliani, then Cuomo is in really deep trouble.

The Cuomo case shows the current state of the #MeToo movement is strong, and it may well rejuvenate its activism even more. But it also shows more needs to be done. Yes, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul may become governor (a first for women in New York State) if Cuomo leaves office, but there is still more progress needed by women in New York politics: women came in second and third in the recent New York City Democratic primary for mayor and there still has not been a woman ever elected as mayor of New York City.

So Cuomo thus has joined a #MeToo list that includes Weinstein, Les Moonves of CBS, former president Donald Trump, Louis CK, Mario Batali, Al Franken, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey … and many others.

As Jay Leno might have asked a celebrity on his show, “What were you thinking?” In the case of Cuomo, it’s a dual question: what was he thinking when he harassed these women, and what was he thinking about spinning the harassment charges without a coherent, voter-friendly crisis PR plan to address his #MeToo behavior? About the Author: Andrew Blum is a PR consultant and media trainer and principal of AJB Communications. He has directed PR for professional services and financial services firms, NGOs, agencies and other clients. As a PR executive, and formerly as a journalist, he has been involved on both sides of the media aisle in some of the most media intensive crises of the past 25 years. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @ajbcomms