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Ex-Cuomo Aide Sues Him for Sexual Harrassment

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“Charlotte Bennett, a onetime executive assistant to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) who was among the first women to lodge sexual harassment accusations against him, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the former New York governor on Wednesday,” the New York Times reports.

“The lawsuit, which also seeks damages from three of Mr. Cuomo’s former top aides, including Melissa DeRosa, accused him of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation in violation of federal, state and city laws.”

The Sordid Saga of Hunter Biden’s Laptop

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New York Magazine: “It is hard to think of a single living individual who has experienced as total an annihilation of digital privacy since our devices became extensions of our consciousness. A suite of executives and thousands of employees were victimized by the Sony hack. In the iCloud hack known as ‘the Fappening,’ nude photos of dozens of celebrities ended up on Reddit and 4chan. The 2016 hack of DNC servers and John Podesta’s Gmail exposed the private communications of a major political party.”

“But in terms of the vastness of the data breach, the narrowness of its target, and its capacity to be deployed as a political weapon, none of those compare to the exposure of Hunter Biden’s entire virtual life.”

So Many Trump Scandals, So Little Time

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Susan Glasser: “Outrage has steadily lost its power in American politics throughout the past few years. Among Donald Trump’s many political weapons, his ability to brazen his way through scandals that would derail other politicians has long been perhaps his strongest asset. His signature move is to displace talk of one mind-blowing violation by committing yet another mind-blowing violation—a habit that has now produced numerous investigations of him and once again led the former President to dominate our daily discourse. It’s easy to forget about the last controversy because, with Trump, you’re always onto the next one.”

“Even now, nearly two years after he left office, this familiar debilitating dynamic applies. There are currently multiple serious, ongoing inquiries into Trump and his associated entities, ranging from investigations of the former President’s business to his role in fomenting the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. Trump has so many legal problems that he is employing no fewer than nineteen lawyers to represent him, Politico found—a full law firm’s worth of legal D-listers. There’s the Georgia probe into his efforts to pressure state election officials not to certify Joe Biden’s victory, and, as last month’s F.B.I. search of Mar-a-Lago made public so dramatically, a Justice Department criminal investigation of his refusal to turn over reams of classified information after he left the White House. Which one to focus on?”


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Pressure Mounts on Cawthorn as Scandals Pile Up

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“Besieged by multiplying scandals and salacious accusations, Representative Madison Cawthorn, Republican of North Carolina, is under mounting pressure from both parties to end his short career in Congress,” the New York Times reports.

“In rapid succession, Mr. Cawthorn, who entered Congress as a rising star of the party’s far right, has been accused of an inappropriate relationship with a male aide, insider trading and falsely suggesting that his Republican colleagues routinely throw cocaine-fueled orgies. This week, he was detained at an airport, where police said he tried to bring a loaded handgun onto an airplane, the second time he has attempted that.”

“That came just days after pictures surfaced of him wearing women’s lingerie as part of a cruise ship game, imagery that might not go over well in the conservative stretches of his Western North Carolina district and would seem to be at odds with his public stance against transgender rights. And last month he was charged with driving with a revoked license for the second time since 2017.”

Madison Cawthorn Is Trying to Commit Every Scandal

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Jonathan Chait: “No lawmaker in recent memory has inspired such fervent, bipartisan speculation as Madison Cawthorn. The young, right-wing first-term member of Congress has generated so many horrible news stories, ranging from the personal to the ideological, that observers have grown obsessed with locating the unifying thread that explains it all. Is he a secret Nazi? Some kind of sex weirdo? A compulsive liar?”

“These are all plausible theories. But I am increasingly drawn to a novel explanation of Cawthorn’s frenetic generation of terrible news stories: He has made a list of every major political scandal and is attempting to commit all of them.”

Why Isn’t Jared Kushner’s Saudi Payment a Big Scandal?

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David Corn: “It’s damn hard to not see the $2 billion investment as either a payoff for past services rendered or a preemptive bribe should Trump manage to regain the White House. And it could be both.”

“It’s a wonder that the disclosure of this deal hasn’t created more of a fuss and prompted congressional investigations. (Imagine what Republicans and Fox News would be doing if Hunter Biden received $2 billion from a Ukrainian government leader who was responsible for the gruesome murder of an American resident.)”

“A 10-figure payment to a relative of a former president who is essentially the current (though undeclared) GOP frontrunner in the 2024 contest and possibly the next inhabitant of the White House is a major scandal.”

The Nation: Kushner’s Saudi side-hustle merits a full-on criminal inquiry.

Republican Accountability Project: “This is what Republicans should have said about Jared Kushner’s Saudi deal.”

Cuomo Slams Hochul for ‘No Vision’

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Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) argues in the New York Daily News that the recent indictment of the state’s lieutenant governor’s “raises troubling questions.”

But then he argues his own lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul (D) — who is now governor because Cuomo himself resigned amid scandal — suffers from “no vision, planning, performance or accountability.”

He then adds: “It’s no secret that the Albany establishment wanted me out of office.”

Rivals Tread Lightly as GOP Candidates Face Accusations

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New York Times: “In Missouri, Georgia, Ohio and now Nebraska, Republican men running for high office face significant allegations of domestic violence, stalking, even sexual assault — accusations that once would have derailed any run for office. But in an era of Republican politics when Donald J. Trump could survive and thrive amid accusations of sexual assault, opposing candidates are finding little traction in dwelling on the issues.”

“Political scientists who have studied Republican voting since the rise of Trumpism are not surprised that accused candidates have soldiered on — and that their primary rivals have approached the accusations tepidly. In this fiercely partisan moment, concerns about personal behavior are dwarfed by the struggle between Republicans and Democrats, which Republican men and women see as life-or-death. Increasingly, Republicans cast accusations of sexual misconduct as an attempt by liberals to silence conservatives.”

“The candidates who do speak of their opponents’ domestic violence and assault allegations often raise them not as disqualifications in looming Republican primaries, but as matters ripe for exploitation by Democrats in the fall.”

Cuomo Eyes Return from Political Exile

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“Andrew Cuomo is agitating for a return to mainstream politics seven months after the three-term New York governor was put into political exile by a wave of sexual harassment allegations that forced his resignation,” the Financial Times reports.

“Now speculation is reaching fever pitch after Cuomo’s team issued an email to supporters this past week highlighting two opinion polls that showed him trailing Kathy Hochul, his replacement, by mere single digits in a presumptive Democratic primary for governor. Cuomo, his staff tantalisingly wrote, ‘is considering all of his options for the future. Stay tuned.'”

“That future may be clearer this Thursday, by which time gubernatorial candidates must file petitions to enter the Democratic primary.”

Politico: Cuomo’s got millions to run again. But he may be too toxic to build a team.

What Is Andrew Cuomo Up To?

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“Seven months after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) resigned in disgrace amid accusations of sexual harassment and the threat of impeachment, he is now moving aggressively to chart a path back to public life,” the New York Times reports.

“He is still out of a job and still politically isolated, following one of the most stunning collapses in modern American political history.”

“But in recent weeks, his campaign account has funded advertising that casts him as the victim of politically motivated ‘attacks.’ He inveighed against ‘cancel culture’ during an appearance at a Black church in Brooklyn on Sunday. And he has made headlines for dining with prominent figures including former Gov. Chris Christie, Republican of New Jersey, and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.”

Cuomo Blames ‘Cancel Culture’ for His Ouster

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Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who resigned last year amid multiple accusations of workplace sexual misconduct, spoke out in public about his exit from office for the first time on Sunday and blamed “the cancel culture mentality” for his decision to leave, The Hill reports.

Said Cuomo: “With cancel culture, we now live in a frightening new world where any accusation can trigger condemnation without facts, without due process. We are a nation of laws – not a nation of Tweets. Social media and Twitter spread cancel culture like a virus. They allow the extreme minority to overpower the reasonable majority.”

Mexican President Targets Media Over ‘Houstongate’

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“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who built his career as an anticorruption crusader and champion of an austere lifestyle, is at the center of a scandal over his eldest son’s use of a luxury Houston house then owned by an oil executive for a top contractor of Mexico’s state-run oil firm,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The president and his son said they haven’t done anything wrong. But the matter, which some have called Houstongate, has gained traction in recent weeks and prompted the president to call reporters who have covered the episode ‘mercenaries’ and compare them to the mafia. He also revealed disputed details about the income of Carlos Loret, one of the investigative reporters who broke the story, and asked Mexican tax officials to investigate him.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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