Gov. Cuomo ignores sex scandal with tone-deaf greeting at news conference
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t letting sexual harassment allegations put a crimp in his style.
Cuomo ignored the fact that he’s facing multiple investigations into sexual harassment claims when he launched into a tone-deaf greeting of a reporter on Wednesday.
During a virtual news conference from Albany, Cuomo was told that he was about to get a phoned-in question from WCBS 880 radio reporter Peter Haskell.
“Remember me?” Cuomo asked Haskell.
“Good-looking? Tall? Blue eyes? Button nose?”
Haskell — who a day earlier remotely covered Cuomo’s appearance at Manhattan’s Javits Center, according to his Twitter feed — responded to Cuomo’s cringe-worthy effort at humor by saying, “Long time, no see.”
The astounding exchange came amid accusations that Cuomo has harassed — and even groped — a series of young women, including current and former aides.
Those allegations are under investigation by outside lawyers hired by Attorney General Letitia James and are also part of an impeachment probe being conducted by the state Assembly Judiciary Committee.
Haskell, meanwhile, pressed Cuomo about another scandal involving reports that his relatives, including younger brother and CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, as well as officials with ties to the governor got tested for the coronavirus at their homes by the state Department of Health last year.
The tests reportedly were administered in early March 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic and at a time when widespread testing wasn’t yet available to the public.
“Was it appropriate for your family and friends to be tested for COVID when others could not? Were you involved in it? Were you aware of it?” Haskell asked.
Cuomo ducked the question by invoking the impeachment investigation, which he has also repeatedly cited as a reason to not answer questions about his alleged treatment of women.
“The Assembly is looking at the testing issue and I don’t want to get ahead of them but I was not involved in the testing program to that intimate level,” he said.
“People who I would meet with … I was aware they were being tested. So if you came to see me in my office, you would be tested. And that applied with my family, also.”
Cuomo added: “But the Assembly’s doing a review on that and I would let them do it.”
The testing question was one of just five that Cuomo took from reporters during a 15-minute session that followed an hourlong presentation he gave on the pending $212 billion state budget for 2021-2022, which was approved by the Assembly early Wednesday.
Cuomo — who hasn’t taken a question from The Post in more than two months — also responded to inquiries from the obscure “Downtown Post” blog, Syracuse TV station WSYR, Long Island’s Newsday newspaper and the Politico website.
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