Nothing to See Here

Hot on the heels of yet another woman coming forward with photographic evidence that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo kissed her without consent, the Cuomo administration has responded, “Look over there!”

Soon everyone in the state will get a vaccine and some weed in what certainly comes off as a thinly veiled bribe to get them to stop demanding Cuomo’s resignation over allegations that he sexually propositioned staffers when he wasn’t groping and kissing them without their consent or similarly mauling reporters. This afternoon, a ninth woman, Sherry Vill, has come forward to say that Cuomo behaved in a way which now sounds like a familiar accusation when he showed up in her town looking for some good press after her house was damaged in a 2017 flood:

“That’s when the governor looked at me, approached me, took my hand and pulled me to him,” Vill said. “He leaned down over me and kissed my cheek. I was holding my small dog in my arms and I thought he was going to pet my dog. But instead he went to squeeze between the dog and mine and kiss me on the other cheek in what I felt was a highly sexual manner.”

In response to Cuomo’s oft bandied excuse that he’s not sexually harassing these women, he’s just Italian, Vill responded that she’s Italian too, and that circumstance of geneology does not mitigate the fact bodily autonomy and professional conduct exist:

“I felt shocked and didn’t understand what had just happened,” said Vill. “But I knew I felt embarrassed and weird about his kissing me. I am Italian, and in my family, family members kiss. Strangers do not kiss, especially upon meeting someone for the first time.”

In response to that response, the governor asked if anybody wanted to get high and then “How about a vaccine? Vaccines for everyone!” Hopefully, those will be nice little parting gifts from a creep on his way out.