New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's
top aide Melissa DeRosa has
resigned as he faces
the possibility of impeachment.
At the same time,
one of his accusers has come
forward to speak out publicly about
what she experienced while working
for him as an aide.
Now this follows the state attorney
general report that found
that Cuomo had sexually harassed 11
women and he could be facing
criminal charges as a result.
Now, Melissa DeRosa, that's the top
aide for Cuomo, announced in a
statement that she's stepping down.
And she said personally, the last
two years have been emotionally and
mentally trying.
I am forever grateful for
the opportunity to have worked
with such talented and committed
colleagues on behalf of our state.
Now, she has been embroiled in
this controversy herself,
because she has been accused of
helping to foster the type of
environment that allowed for For
Cuomo to sexually harass his aids.
The 38 year old who held
the highest ranking appointed
position in the state appeared
throughout the New York state
attorney general, the Leticia James
August 3rd report.
The report detailed DeRosa's role
in seeking to discredit one of
Cuomo's accusers, Lindsey Boylan,
by leaking personal records and
taking part in an effort to write
and release a letter questioning
her character.
The document was never made public.
And of course, this is not
the first time that both Cuomo and
his top eight DeRosa have
been embroiled in controversy.
In February,
DeRosa came under scrutiny for
her role in the administration's
underreporting of COVID-19 deaths
in nursing homes last year.
A different report from James's
office Office released in January
found that New York had actually
underreported COVID-19
deaths among residents of nursing
homes by approximately 50%.
And remember Cuomo was the one who
forced nursing homes
to take in elderly patients who had
tested positive for COVID and
hadn't fully recovered yet.
And that's how COVID spread in
nursing homes in the state
of New York.
Now before we go to some video
featuring one of Cuomo's aides
who has accused him of sexual
assault and harassment.
Cenk I wanted to get your thoughts
on DeRosa's decision to step down.
>> Yeah, she's trying to avoid
accountability.
She's running for
the hills super obvious.
And hey, don' aiden bad guys at
work because you think it'll help
your interests.
So, the only details we know
the ones that are public, the ones
that are public don't look good.
It looked like she was trying to
question the credibility of people
who had been sexually harassed.
That is not very good thing to do,
although seven left probably
applauding her now.
>> I mean they engage in it,
that's certainly true.
>> Yeah.
>> Right, someone who accused of
sexual harassment go after them
by trying to question their
credibility.
>> And smear them.
Yes, so I maybe they're
celebrating Cuomo in those circles.
But then of course those are not
real progressive.
So- >> Right.
>> Now back to this,
I think the details of their
assistant are beyond damning.
It's her testimony alone let alone
the fact that it's backed up by
ten other women who have similar
allegations and all corroborated at
the time by other folks.
It's over man,
it's way beyond over.
Listen to what she has to say.
Then we're done with this.
>> Yeah, so this is Brittany Comey.
So she spoke to CBS This Morning
about what she experienced when she
was working as one of the aides for
Cuomo.
Let's watch.
>> While I was upstairs in
the office, the governor said,
why don't we take a selfie?
>> So his suggestion this is.
>> Yes, I- >> With your phone?
>> With my phone.
I then felt while taking
the selfie, his hand go down my
back onto my butt.
And he started rubbing it,
not sliding it, not quickly
brushing over it, rubbing my butt.
>> And did
you ask him what are you doing?
>> Well while I was taking
the selfie I became so nervous that
my hands were clearly shaking and
a lot of the photos that I was
snapping or completely blurry.
I showed him them and
he said, those aren't good.
And he said, why don't we go sit on
the couch and
we can take a better one.
>> So you sit on the couch.
>> I sat on the couch because I
thought to myself, okay,
I don't think on the couch,
that he would have a way to just do
what he just did.
So I felt safer actually on
the couch.
And in the photo, I have my arm
wrapped around his shoulder.
Almost as if we were taking
a picture with a buddy.
>> So, she also talks about him,
she's clearly stating that he had
groped her on multiple occasions by
the way, we have more video to get
to in just a second.
But that's pretty damning and
also I just want to point out that
as this is happening,
they take the selfie because he
insists on taking the selfie.
And you look at that image and
it seems like everything is
totally fine.
It seems like everything is
great as if she wasn't being
literally assaulted as
that photo was being taken, right?
So I point that out because not all
is what it seems, right?
Sometimes the optics of something
lead you in the wrong direction in
terms of knowing what's really
going on.
But when you're talking
about an imbalance of power,
when you're talking about literally
the governor of New York a woman
like Kanniso finds herself in
a situation where she's got to
play along to get along, right?
Because there's a lot at stake,
if you speak out.
There's a lot at stake if you slap
Cuomo's hand away as he's groping
you like that, >> Yeah, and
I don't think that's the right
way of phrasing it.
She's not going to get along.
She's nervous.
She's scared.
>> Right of course.
>> Guys it's not just about getting
fired, there's gas lighting,
like, this is normal,
what are you complaining about?
This is like, you're being weird,
like my god!
Because it's hard to understand,
but it comes across when you read
the report that everybody in
the office has such reverence for
Cuomo.
And in America, it is probably true
in a lot of countries, there's such
reverence overall for politicians
that they're put on a pedestal
usually by the media, right?
They these all powerful entities
especially Cuomo, New York.
My god, nobody could
question Cuomo.
>> I mean people were calling Cuomo
supporters or people were like
loving on Cuomo so hard during
the beginning of the pandemic
because the juxtaposition of Cuomo
to Trump was so severe, right?
And so people were like referring
to themselves as Cuomo sexuals.
So imagine being a woman who works
for him, who's being sexually
assaulted by him, feeling like you
can't speak out because if you do,
I mean the entire country is like
in the middle of a love affair with
Cuomo, right?
>> Well, at least the mainstream
media was, right?
>> Right.
>> And yes, the juxtaposition was
real, Cuomo would sound rational
and Trump would sound unhinged.
And when you watch it back to back,
you're like Jesus.
And I get it, it was a super low
bar, you just had to sound a little
bit more rational than a person who
should literally be locked up in
an insane asylum, right?
Joe, what do we check glitch and
find out what happens.
Cuomo would come out and go, maybe
we should listen to scientists.
I was like, yes, right?
>> Right.
>> And so now having said that, but
the love affair that Mainstream
Media had with Cuomo was decades,
it started way before COVID.
Cuomo could do no
wrong Cynthia Nixon challenges and
many other progressive challenges
of his ever teach out those.
They're like how dare they because
his challenges have no credibility.
I don't know why they're bothering
to do a primary of a good Democrat
like Andrew Cuomo,
that was a press.
It wasn't other Democrats.
The press is that worse,
they aided and abetted Cuomo his
entire career, he would have
never had the kind of power that he
had if it wasn't for the press
constantly kissing his ass, okay?
Now fast forward to that moment in
the office and the press gaslight
you, everybody in that office
gaslight you and you thinking,
well this guy's untouchable and
they say he's like the greatest
thing since sliced bread.
And now I'm going to go and
tell everybody that they're all
wrong and I'm right, that it's not
right for him to do that to me,
the pressure is unbelievable.
That's why some people don't
immediately reported and that's not
because they had a secret sinister
plan to blackmail him later because
you know how women are, right?
No, it's because they were nervous,
they were nervous because of the
situation and the culture at hand.
Now it got worse with her,
we gotta go that other clip so
you understand what kind of
a monster Cuomo is.
>> He gets up and
he goes to give me a hug.
And I could tell immediately when
he hugged me it was in a probably
the most sexually aggressive manner
than any of the other hugs that he
had given me.
It was then that I said, Governor,
my words were you're going to get
us in trouble.
And I thought to myself that
probably wasn't the best thing
to say.
But at that time, I was so
afraid that one of the managers and
staff that they were going to come
up and see this and think is that
what she comes here for?
And that's not what I came
there for.
And that's not who I am.
And I was terrified of that.
And when I said that,
he walked over,
shut the door so hard to the point
where I thought for sure, someone
downstairs they must think if they
heard that what is going on?
Came back to me and that's when he
put his hand up my blouse and
kept my breast over my bra.
I exactly remember looking down,
seeing his hand, which is a large
hand, thinking to myself, my god,
this is happening.
It happens so quick.
He didn't say anything.
When I stopped it, he just pulled
away and walked away.
>> It was so sick about all
of this, and I see it over and
over again in any story involving
sexual misconduct in the workplace.
The victim in this case,
who we're hearing from right now,
Brittany Kanniso even now
in retelling the story.
And she's second guessing her own
behavior as we live in a culture
that assigns blame to the woman
who's being preyed upon and
you see it over and over again.
Maybe that wasn't the right
thing to say.
Maybe I should have done this.
I don't want anyone to think this
or that about me.
No, she's not the bad guy.
As most women in similar situations
find, society treats them like they
did something to deserve it.
>> Yeah, and the reason she's
stating all of it that way
is because she's not wrong, that's
some percentage of the country will
look at that and go.
>> A huge percentage.
>> Will look at that and
say she wanted it.
It was her fault, she led him on,
guaranteed a significant
percentage.
So she then has that cloud hanging
over for the rest of her life.
And by the way, you were
reliving her harassment over and
over again millions of times.
And that's what people are going to
remember about her.
And that sucks.
So meanwhile
the New York State Assembly has
started impeachment proceedings.
Andrew Cuomo arrogance knows no
bounds.
This is not a lone story.
There's no he said she said there's
he said and they all said, right?
This is not
remotely close to your own.
By the way,
these democrats in New York were so
subservient to Andrew Cuomo.
Now they're all walking around
like they're tough guys, almost all
of them would do anything that he
ordered them to do.
And even when they have turned on
you because your actions are so
monstrous and unacceptable.
When are you going to get the clue
that maybe you should step aside?
And by the way, Don Lemon on CNN is
saying he should step aside because
he's ruining the Cuomo name.
I didn't know was that important?
[LAUGH]