I have a column today in the New York Post on Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, and the “sexual harassment” accusations Mamdani played an under-recognized role in amplifying a few years ago, which eventually forced Cuomo’s ouster as governor. The column was prompted by Mamdani bringing along a woman named Charlotte Bennett in his entourage to the final mayoral debate last week, and my incredulity that still no one would accurately report on how mendacious the stunt was.
(You can also read the column in today’s edition of the physical newspaper! How retro!)
In December 2024, Charlotte Bennett suddenly and unceremoniously dropped the federal lawsuit she had brought against Cuomo more than two years earlier. Her ostensible explanation for this reversal was “I desperately need to live my life. That’s the choice I am making today.” Somehow, the law firm of Debra Katz, which had represented Bennett ever since she became Cuomo’s foremost “accuser,” managed to spin the voluntary dismissal of her own lawsuit as an act of healing and self-empowerment.
Unmentioned was that Bennett had been on the verge of finally having to sit for a deposition, in which she was to be confronted with a bevy of evidence demonstrating that the claims she had initially made against Cuomo — such as that she was “groomed” by him as a 25-year-old government operative — were flatly ridiculous, and by no reasonable definition could constitute “sexual harassment.” She had never made any claims of physical wrongdoing by Cuomo, but of course was happy for it to be vaguely assumed that Cuomo had done something physical to her, given the witless media coverage her seedy scheme engendered…