The Cuomo strategy: the journalist helped the governor raise a smoke screen over his harassment case

The fall from grace of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on allegations of sexual harassment threatens to drag, or at least push over the edge, his brother, the popular CNN television host Chris Cuomo. The journalist, who in his program inhibited himself from talking about his brother when the investigations began to determine if the politician had harassed almost a dozen women, would have played a key role in the communication strategy of the veteran Democrat, as reported by this Monday the newspaper The New York Times. There would be nothing in particular that one brother helps another in a difficult moment, but the journalist’s participation in the political scandal raises doubts about his ethical relevance, judging by the development of the events.

“Trust me,” Chris Cuomo allegedly told his older brother. The well-known host of a prime-time news program participated, according to the newspaper, in a meeting to define strategies and shared with him at least one piece of advice about one of the women who accused Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. The governor, who was close to success thanks to his management of the initial phase of the pandemic, was forced to resign from his post last summer. Another scandal about the makeup of data on deaths from covid-19 in nursing homes in the State ended his political career.

Thousands of pages of new evidence and sworn testimony released Monday show the extent to which the former governor trusted a group of allies, including his younger brother, when devising strategies on how to divert attention and survive a cascade of harassment allegations. sex that eventually ended up gobbling it up. Left to its own devices by him establishment A Democrat, Cuomo resigned last August.

The diversionary strategy began as soon as the first case, that of Governor’s former aide Lindsey Boylan, became known. The evidence released this Monday exposes in great detail how the group of advisers, including Chris Cuomo, designed a strategy aimed at misleading the press, discrediting their accusers – not only women, but also politicians and officials in Albany, the seat of the Government. state, very critical of the former governor- and control the speech to stay in power, a claim that day by day was more unsustainable in view of the endless testimonies that came to light.

After discussing the legality of the measure, the group of advisers agreed to release Boylan’s personal file to the press, a report in which she is described as a deranged woman who was trying to get political gain from the complaint. Boylan unsuccessfully ran in the June New York City local elections for the borough of Manhattan. His version was meticulously questioned by the governor’s environment, as were the accounts offered by the following victims. The advisers also recruited dozens of former Cuomo associates to sign an opinion piece in their defense.

Judging from the evidence released today, Chris Cuomo appears to have played a more essential role than was initially thought or implied. In a six-hour statement to investigators in July, the journalist insisted that he had never manipulated the coverage of the case or misled other colleagues for the benefit of his brother. “When the case began to accelerate, my brother asked me to be aware,” he said. He also defined himself as a “satellite” of his brother’s formal advisers.

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