Thursday, November 11, 2021

11 November 2021: Cuomo Playing Stupid in Sexual Harassment Probe?

Andrew Cuomo Pretends to Not Understand What 'Girlfriend' Means

This report and analysis comes from the very left-leaning Jezebel. In the following excerpt, Jane Starr Drinkard describes Andrew M. Cuomo's apparent legal strategy in facing the sexual harassment allegations being investigated by the New York state attorney general's office and reactions from media observers:

The strategy going into the interview? Obfuscation. The excerpts from the 515-page release circulating on Twitter reveal a man dedicated to smoke and mirrors: Cuomo said he doesn’t “know” the song “Do You Love Me?” by The Contours, but James’ August 3rd report included audio of Cuomo singing that very song to Charlotte Bennett. Cuomo described former executive aide Brittany Commisso as a “gossip hotline,” and in response to questions about touching her butt, conceded that he “may have hugged her on the lower back.” (Read between the lines people!) During one exchange between the AG and former governor, the precise definition of “girlfriend” was hotly debated:

Hmm...reminiscent of AIM exchanges I had in middle school trying to decipher whether a guy friend had a “crush” on a girl friend of mine.

Andrew M. Cuomo may have learned some very stupid lessons from his days as a member of Bill Clinton's cabinet in the 1990s. Drinkard also features Twitter posts featuring comments from Andrew M. Cuomo's PR and legal team:

Though it should be noted that Cuomo is currently facing a criminal misdemeanor charge for forcible touching, he tweeted some frantic Notes App questions along with this statement from his attorney Rita Glavin:

Translation: The testimony in the transcripts doesn't help us.

Update 12 November 2021: Here's another article that points up the "playing stupid" strategy Andrew M. Cuomo's legal team has adopted:

Andrew Cuomo claimed no memory 200+ times during sex harass grilling

Before reading this next excerpt, recall that Andrew M. Cuomo's deposition with investigators from the state attorney general's office lasted for a reported 11 hours. That means his spoken variations of "I don't recall" came up an average of 18 times an hour, or about once every three minutes, 20 seconds. In practice, that's difficult to do without a lot of training and even more coaching....

Andrew Cuomo appeared to suffer from sudden memory loss when grilled about the sexual misconduct claims levied at him — answering “I don’t recall,” “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know” more than 200 times during his deposition.

The disgraced ex-governor’s amnesiac moments struck throughout his 11-hour interview on July 17 with outside lawyers tapped by state Attorney Letitia James to probe the allegations.

“I don’t have any recollection purposefully touching a woman on the butt,” Cuomo said at one point, according to a 515-page transcript released by James on Wednesday.

That comment was in response to investigators asking Cuomo — who is known to have a memory like a steel trap — whether he had ever touched the backsides of two senior female staffers.

“I have no recollection of touching a woman on her butt. May it have happened accidentally? Incidentally? Yes. But I don’t have any recollection of purposefully touching a woman on the butt,” Cuomo, 63, said when pushed on his evasive reply.

It takes a lot of work to play stupid.

-