Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be facing explicit calls to resign from President Biden on down, if you apply the standard that Democrats set for similar allegations against Republicans. And it's not a close call.
I don't remember Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asking for Donald Trump's resignation. It's true that the all 26 women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment or assault allege that the misconduct took place before Trump was elected President. It's also true that he ordered payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels/Stephanie Clifford shortly before that election so that he might become President Donald Trump.
Why it matters: The #MeToo moment saw men in power run out of town for exploiting young women. Democrats led the charge. So the silence of so many of them seems more strange — and unacceptable by their own standards — by the hour.
The most notable man "run out of town" for sexual impropriety was Al Franken after charges of sexual impropriety, behavior which would have taken place before he was a US Senator. He was run out of town by Democrats, because that's what Democrats do.
Their only plausible explanation would be to argue that three women are exaggerating or misremembering things. This is precisely what Democrats said was unacceptable in GOP cases.
Democrats didn't say the behavior was unacceptable because they were committed by Republicans. They said it was unacceptable regardless of party. And they were wrong- wrong because each case deserves to be considered on its own merits rather than a blanket "believe women." Men don't always tell the truth. Unless women are of a super gender, they, too, are capable of exaggerating, forgetting details, or- occasionally- lying. It's the human condition.
One top New York Democrat told me the reaction has been "disheartening" — an approach by both parties of believing women "except if they accuse a member of your party."
As pointed out by Axios Sneak Peek on Sunday: Democrats hammered Donald Trump after "Access Hollywood," pilloried Brett Kavanaugh over Christine Blasey Ford and defended Joe Biden when he was accused of inappropriate touching.
The reference to Brett Kavanaugh is the most telling in this hit piece. Were Andrew Cuomo to have a sense of humor, he would urge an investigation of the allegations against him similar to the one conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of charges against Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh was not serving in an elected position, had never served in an elective position, and had been nominated for a lifetime appointment. It would be (is) a lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court, to serve alongside a mere eight other individuals to make rulings which are not reviewable.
If ever there needs to be a thorough review by law enforcement of a nominee for any position, it would not be of an individual who was elected to his position and could not continue in the position without again facing the voters. It would be of someone tapped to serve on the High Court.
Nonetheless, the FBI "investigation" of accusations against Brett Kavanaugh took a mere five days in which neither of the two principals- Kavanaugh and Ford- was interviewed. . One of the accusers, Deborah Ramirez, had been at a drunken dormitory party at Yale when, according to the authors of "The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,"
a freshman named Brett Kavanaugh pulled down his pants and thrust his penis at her, prompting her to swat it away and inadvertently touch it. Some of the onlookers, who had been passing around a fake penis earlier in the evening, laughed.
Therefore, Ms. Ramirez's legal team
gave the F.B.I. a list of at least 25 individuals who may have had corroborating evidence. But the bureau — in its supplemental background investigation — interviewed none of them, though we learned many of these potential witnesses tried in vain to reach the F.B.I. on their own.
Two F.B.I. agents interviewed Ms. Ramirez, telling her that they found her “credible.” But the Republican-controlled Senate had imposed strict limits on the investigation. “‘We have to wait to get authorization to do anything else,’” Bill Pittard, one of Ms. Ramirez’s lawyers, recalled the agents saying. “It was almost a little apologetic.”
Nonetheless, maybe Donald Trump is a victim, as Jonathan Allen seems to believe.
Trump was a victim who bragged about routinely sexually assaulting women. He then got elected President, tried to pressure a foreign government into investigating his political rival, then obstructed an investigation into his actions, and gained nearly nearly unanimous support from his party's members of Congress. On his way out the door, he incited an insurrection against the United States government, receiving the support of the vast majority of those members of Congress. He now is extended the privileges of all former Presidents: office space and staffing allowances; travel expenses (up to $1 million in costs annually); health annuities, lifetime Secret Service protection, and the right to burial with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery, next to individuals he has called "losers" and "suckers."
Whatever the future may hold for him, Trump has enjoyed a charmed life- and charmed presidency, thanks to a party whose leaders have found no crime, no grift, and no contempt for Americans unacceptable as long as it's committed by Donald Trump. When the governor of New York gets 5% of the breaks the 45th President has, or 20% what Brett Kavanaugh has, Mike Allen can legitimately accuse Democrats of hypocrisy.
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