The Megyn Kelly Show - Cuomo is Done - And What Comes Next, with Janice Dean and Stu Burguiere | Ep. 144

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

Megyn Kelly is joined by Janice Dean, Fox news meteorologist, and Stu Burguiere, host of "Stu Does America" and executive producer of "The Glenn Beck Show," to talk about the end of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, what happens next for the politician, New York state, and the state of the ongoing investigations into Cuomo including related to the nursing home scandal, Chris Cuomo and CNN's role in this (as well as the media more broadly), the absurdity of Gov. Cuomo's defense, Janice Dean's role in the fall of Cuomo, what the story says about America and our elites, and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShowFind out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. Andrew Cuomo's out. It happened. It actually happened. He resigned. I mean, he was forced to resign, but he's gone. He's leaving. He gave himself 14 days notice, two weeks notice. But he's officially out. And I don't know. Janice Dean said it would happen and it happened. And she's here again. I'm like, we got to have her back. We have to have this moment. She's here with her reaction. And we're going to talk about reports that I

heard over on The New York Times podcast today, The Daily, that he's probably going to talk about reports that I heard over on the New York Times podcast today, the daily that he's probably going to come back. What? No one else, no other politician when they get have suffered defeat like this or an embarrassment gets talk of he'll come back within two minutes, right? Other than somebody like a Democrat named Andrew Cuomo. And we're also going to be joined by I love this guy's Stu Bergeer. He's host of Stu Does America over on The Blaze. And he's also co-host of The Glenn Beck Show and executive producer of that show, too. He's a great, great guy, good perspective, and has been really following the Cuomo story from the beginning. So you're going to love his perspective. All things Andrew Cuomo and media and their dereliction. And I'm not just talking about Chris Cuomo, though. We will get to him, too. So all that plus my opening monologue in one minute.

He's done. After three terms in office, an Emmy, a five million dollar book deal with a reported 18 million in the bank, and only one year after he was lauded as the future of the Democratic Party, Andrew Cuomo's out as the New York governor and one of the most powerful politicians in America. Good. He resigned yesterday in a stunning turn of fortune after he realized he was out of options. The president had turned on him. The centrist New York Democrats who had been backing him turned on him. The Speaker of the Assembly made clear that the impeachment trial of Mr. Cuomo for the alleged serial sexual harassment and abuse of women would go forward in weeks, not months. And the calculating politician did the math. There was no way forward. Instead of letting the guillotine drop, he swung the axe himself and ended his political career.

At least for now. How on earth did we get here? I'll tell you how. In the spring of 2020, Andrew Cuomo's star rose rapidly as he dazzled the media with his measured COVID press conferences, sounding every bit the avuncular voice of reason, the man in control of the uncontrollable, the perfect contrast to shoot from the hip Trump, whose public health messaging was all over the board and often erratic. Cuomo's sexual t-shirts were bought and worn by grown men, enamored with Cuomo's Jed Bartlett-esque, tell it like it is style. He'll save us from this pandemic, people thought. There was even talk of replacing Biden

on the Democratic ticket with him. And then a gal from Canada, married to a New York City hero, 9-11 firefighter, and living a simple life on Long Island, New York, raising their two young sons together. She was fighting a medical battle of her own, by the way, MS, and doing the weather for Fox News, got mad. Janice Dean. You see, both of her in-laws, her husband Sean's parents, Dee and Mickey, who I also had the pleasure of meeting over the years, died in New York nursing homes, not long after Sean and Janice reluctantly made the decision to admit them. They died shortly after an order issued by Governor Big Man on campus that sent COVID-positive patients into New York nursing homes where the sickest, most vulnerable populations lived. Medical groups had begged Governor Cuomo not to do it, warning him

the death toll would be devastating. But Cuomo, as always, knew better. The death toll mounted by the thousands. Dee and Mickey were two of them. Two, it would turn out, of some 15,000 seniors who died in New York nursing homes. And the weather gal from Fox News decided to speak out about it. Since the fawning liberal media has zero desire to attack their boyfriend-in-chief. She spoke out about this on Fox News, on this show, and anywhere that would have her. Notably not on the list? The View, among others, which had hosted J.D. before but for some reason found this story totally

uninteresting. She tweeted multiple times a day. She watched every press conference of his. She informed us all of his inconsistencies. She called out his lies on the number of dead, on his callousness about the death toll. People die. It happens. His deflection of blame to God, to the nurses, to anyone not named Cuomo. She had allies in men like Ron Kim, Democrat from New York, whose relative, his uncle, also died in a New York nursing home. He later admitted that his own speaking out led to vicious bullying from Cuomo personally. But those allies were few and far between. People like Soledad O'Brien, Matthew Dowd, then of ABC News, attacked Janice. She was diminished by so many as just the weather gal. Even the governor's top aide attacked her as, quote, diminished by so many as just the weather gal. Even the

governor's top aide attacked her as, quote, not an expert in anything but the weather. She wouldn't stop. She was like a dog with a bone. Even Sean, a very private man and good friend of mine, eventually asked her, honey, when when are you going to stop this? Never was the answer because it's not how she's built. She couldn't because no one else would talk about it. Sure, Fox News, right? And some conservative media. But ABC, NBC, CBS, please.

CNN? Well, CNN went a different way entirely, lionizing Andrew Cuomo on his brother's show in the middle of all of this, joking night after night about who mom loved best, humanizing Andrew, trying to make us all love him. No hard questions, just a celebration of his alleged brilliance and leadership. The Cuomo brothers, raised in enormous privilege, afforded it yet again on a national stage in a gross dereliction of journalistic duty that CNN will never live down. After long last, the Attorney General of New York finally got involved, took a look at the nursing home numbers, and confirmed everything Janice had been saying,

that Cuomo had lied, that he had been undercounting the deaths to protect himself politically. His top aide even admitted it privately to top Democrats. Still, the press and New York Democrats had little interest in the story. And then came a woman named Lindsay Boylan in December 2020 with a tweet that would mark the final chapter of Cuomo. Lindsay Boylan, who worked in the governor's office for a period of time as a young, fresh-faced aide, revealed that she had been sexually harassed by him, that he had kissed her on the lips against her will, asked her to play strip poker with him, been told by her boss that Cuomo, quote, had a crush on her. And not long after that, in 2018, Boylan then left Cuomo's office. Boylan was attacked,

smeared, diminished, called a liar by Cuomo and his henchmen and women, but she never wavered. And we now know that behind the scenes, the governor was getting help smearing Lindsay Boylan from people like the executive director of Time's Up. Time's Up. Not to mention the human rights campaign. These are woke organizations Not to mention the human rights campaign. These are woke organizations meant to hold the powerful to account, working to ruin Lindsay Boylan by, in the case, for example, of HRC,

leaking her personnel file, which the HRC president, a former aide of Cuomo's, had. And in the case of Roberta Kaplan of Time's Up, helping the governor in his response to Boylan's allegations. Their first instincts? Side with power. Attack the women. Destroy Lindsay Boylan. And they did try. But then came others. One by one, young women coming forward with similar stories of bullying,

inappropriate groping, kissing, fondling, sex talk, and so on. And then the AG Letitia James was back again. Yes, Tish James, who definitely wants Andrew Cuomo's job, his defenders are not wrong about that, began another investigation. Farmed out to two independent investigators, one of whom had gone after Cuomo before. And still more women and witnesses came forward, ones who had never spoken publicly before. An executive assistant who says he groped her behind and then her breast under her blouse. A state trooper whose stomach he allegedly rubbed, among other things. A woman on a rope line whose chest he pressed into repeatedly with his finger. Cuomo, for his part, dismissed it all as overreactions or untruths

or misinterpretations. Listen to him yesterday trying to normalize his decision to touch that female state trooper's stomach. I got to know her over time and she's a great professional. And I would sometimes banter with her when we were in the car. We spent a lot of time driving around the state. This female trooper was getting married and I made some jokes about the negative consequences of married life. I meant it to be humorous. She was offended and she was right. The trooper also said that in an elevator I touched her back and when I was walking past her in a doorway, I touched her stomach. Now, I don't recall doing it, but if she said I did it, I believe her. At public events, troopers will often hold doors open or guard the doorways. When I walk past them, I often will give them a grip of the arm, a pat on the face, a touch on the stomach, a slap on the back.

It's my way of saying, I see you. Sure. Women, how many times has your boss rubbed your belly? Men, how many times have you done that to female colleagues? Please. This is what he does. Try to normalize it. And by the way, then blame the women. That's what he did to Janice Dean, to Boylan, to all of the women helped not just by the media, but by Time's Up, by critical woke activists, and also by his brother, Chris Cuomo, who after doing his level best to make the nation love Andrew Cuomo, advised his brother behind the scenes on how to dismiss these women entirely without disclosing any of his maneuvering. Chris Cuomo became a political

activist, meeting with the governor's staff, lawyers, coming up with a game plan on how to get rid of these pesky charges. We only know this because he got caught. The Washington Post broke the story and Chris Cuomo went on the air, admitted it, and tried to convince his audience he cares very deeply, that's a quote, about sexual harassment. Now we know he cares so deeply, he actually drafted his brother's public defense. He was part of the same team that smeared these women as pushing cancel culture. Governor Cuomo's team attacked Lindsay Boylan with special vigor. She was number one. She had to go. A woman whose mother, by the way, who was once on food stamps, whose dad was from Queens. He was the son of Irish immigrants. He was a Marine. He served in Desert Storm. That's

who Lindsay Boylan comes from. Not anyone with connections, not anyone with family power. Everything Lindsay Boylan earned, she'd earned on her own. And now this woman found herself up against the most powerful man in New York, one of the most powerful in America, and his media star brother. And these two men, born into a family of enormous privilege, connection, and influence, two men who obviously would have none of the success they now enjoy without the Cuomo name, that of their father, who was a three-term governor of New York, came for Lindsay and the others without one care for the truth. Chris Cuomo needs to be held accountable. This is totally unacceptable behavior.

Andrew Cuomo is now rightfully gone. And Lindsay Boylan, Janice Dean, and the other women who came forward are owed a debt of gratitude by all of us. Janice is with me now. JD, I don't know. I don't want to say we never thought it would happen, but I looked back at our, our interviews and in March of 2021, you said when the women started coming forward, I think this is going to be the end of him. And you were right as usual, you were right. Well, I had the angels on my side. I know that I bring that up often, but it's a phrase that I got from you many years ago

when you and I were going up against a bully, the most powerful name in news. And you said, we're on the side of the angels, JD. And so I use that phrase because it means something, not only in this situation, but in another situation where there was a very powerful person that we didn't think was going to leave and we would possibly lose our jobs for going up against. And I use it now because it's true.

My in-laws, I'm their voice. And those are the people whose side that I am on now. You never stopped fighting through all the attacks. And it's not like they didn't bother you. It's not pleasant to be attacked by Soledad O'Brien, not to mention Ben Stiller, Matthew Dowd, who kept coming for you over and over and over. And these are just a few. And the governor's office themselves came for you. These same people who are now being disgraced, tried to dismiss you as nothing, as a nothing because of your job. It's not that it didn't bother you. It's just you were a woman on a mission.

I knew I had truth on my side. I knew that the evidence was there. So I felt confident to continue to go against these bullies because that's what they were. Anna Navarro as well, by the way. I forgot her. Yeah, I forged ahead. And I'm not going to lie. My husband, as you mentioned, was not happy with what was going on. He was nervous, obviously. He knew that I was doing it for the right reasons, but he was worried about me. And I don't know what kept me going. I like to say it was my in-laws that kept me going and they gave me strength every day. But I think, you know, we've discussed this before. I've had building blocks of getting to this point, right? I think if I was a 25 year old that just moved to New York and had this

happen, I would never have the strength to go against the most powerful politician in New York state and somebody who wanted to be a president. And I always thought to myself, even if he doesn't leave office, but he's wounded enough that he doesn't seek higher office, then what I did was justified. So to see him yesterday, step down, which I was surprised he did because he's, you know, dug in his heels for so long. It's not just, it's not part of his personality to sort to the allegations. It was, well, the standards have changed over time, you know, sort of I'm an accurate I'm anachronistic. But also this is a political hit job.

But also the women are liars and they misinterpreted things. And whatever, you know, kissing or whatever went on is because they wanted it. I mean, it was like all over the board, but let's just start with the old changing standards defense because we hear this one a lot. Listen, I thought a hug and putting my arm around the staff person while taking a picture was friendly, but she found it to be too forward. My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting. I do hug and kiss people casually, women and men. In my mind, crossed the line with anyone but I didn't realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn but I want to thank the women who came forward with

sincere complaints it's not easy to step forward but you did an important service and you taught me and you taught others an important lesson. Personal boundaries must be expanded and must be protected. Okay. The line moved. This is basically the same as when an old boss from the 1960s would get in trouble by today's standards for calling someone sweetie. That's basically what this is. You know, he's always blaming others, though. I mean, I've been covering him now for a year and a half, and he never fessed up to the nursing home stuff. You know, it was always God and Mother Nature and the New York Post and Trump and Fox News and political it's political. And even the nurses, even the nurses, he will blame it on people who have far less power than

he does. And at one point he even blamed the nursing home residents. They're old. They're going to die. I mean, I listen, I think the guy actually has a personality disorder. I don't think he has any capability to to be empathetic in any situation. What you saw there was his best, you know, actor. You know, he's he's like De Niro, you know, his hero trying to act his way out of a terrible situation. So, you know, I'm used to hearing him sort of that broken record of blaming everyone else except the guy who signed the mandate to put COVID positive patients into nursing homes and the guy who sexually harassed and probably sexually assaulted an employee. And now he's looking at potential criminal charges. The woman who was his executive assistant who said he groped her breast is saying she is pursuing criminal charges against him. There are DAs in a few different jurisdictions looking into it. Lindsay Boylan says she's going to sue him because the retaliation against her was well documented in the Tish James report. But I'll tell you what, J.D., I listened to the daily, the New York times is podcast

that they put out every day, uh, this morning. And there, there was talk over there about how he's not done. He's going to take that 18 million he has in the bank. How do you make 18 million as a sitting governor of New York? Um, and he's probably going to run again. They were basically saying, don't count him out, if not for New York state governor, for higher office, that he'll wait some time and we could see him rise again. What do you think of that? I think Albany lawmakers need to stop being so

spineless and impeach him so that that never happens. So I'm glad you gave me that information because I'm going to get on the phone to Ron Kim and say listen if this is the case and this guy is you know thinking that he's going to run again at some point you need to put a nail in the coffin you need to make sure that he can never run again and that means impeaching him which they can do is similar to what the Democrats tried to do to Trump they wanted to impeach him among other reasons, because they wanted to get, um, to the point where he could never run again. And that would also happen to Cuomo if he were in fact impeached and found guilty. Um, but I don't think there's will to do that to you, JD. I think these Democrats

in the New York assembly who have been slow as molasses and doing anything about any of these problems, they're relieved today that they don't have to go forward with this. Relieved and almost bragging. I was just on social media before I got in the interview with you, Megan, and these Albany lawmakers, Democrats, some of whom are notoriously known for hiding in the bathroom when having to vote against something Cuomo wanted, are going on telling war stories about, oh, when he did this. In their defense, they were in there looking for their balls. Yes. I'm so glad you said that. I'm so sick of it. They're so spineless. And now they're coming out, oh, I remember when he did this to me. Where were you guys when we needed you most? Megan, it was a year ago yesterday where my invitation was rescinded from lawmakers to were uncomfortable with what I had to say and where I worked.

So, yeah, I mean, from the very beginning, these people tried to silence me and I won't ever forget that. That's right. And today, when you look at the media coverage today, J.D., it's so disingenuous. All these left wing papers and left wing TV shows pretending like they sound like they knew it all along, you know, that he's a bad guy and he had to go. It's like you played defense for him for 14 months. This result was forced upon you by the attorney general's report. You came to it kicking and screaming, even as media people. Don't try to fool us that you somehow support him being deposed in this way. Right. I mean, the media has just been complicit in this the whole time, with exception to many like yourself, Fox News, the New York Post, The Daily Caller, Town Hall, all of those places that do reporting, good reporting, and didn't back down because he was the emperor, the one that controlled everything and truly had the most power in New York State.

They didn't back down. You know, even Chuck Todd yesterday, right afterwards, right after the guy leaves, he's like, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but you know, he'll be back. I don't see why he wouldn't try to seek office again. And I'm just, please, you know, he's lobbying right now probably to get Matt Lauer, his job back, get Andy Lack back at the top of NBC. That's how Chuck Todd sees the world. Yeah, they'll come back. Sure. Why not? Well, Chuck Todd, hi. If you're listening, I'd love for you to give me a call so I can give you a rundown of things that you never reported on and things that actually the governor might go to jail about. Right.

Well, and so that's the other question, right? We've talked all along. When this first broke with the women, you were torn because you really wanted to see him held to account for what he did on the nursing homes. And it's insane. We've talked about it before that 15,000 dead seniors doesn't seem to register with the, with the populace, with the media, with the Democrats in control in New York, but 11 women saying that they've been inappropriately touched does not in any way to diminish the women. It's just one story caught fire and the other one was totally buried and ignored intentionally. So how are you feeling about it today? I think it's terrible what they went through. And I've used the analogy about Al Capone going to jail for tax evasion. It wasn't for the really deeply sell a five point one million dollar book. I mean, listen, the apples and oranges here. And so I don't care what ultimately makes him leave the building. But I do want these investigations to continue because he does need to be held accountable.

And, you know, this morning we had Ron Kim on Fox News in the morning with us. It was the first time I had seen him, you know, via Zoom. And I got choked up because I'm so grateful to him. You know, it's not about politics. You know, he's a Democrat. And I'm sure we disagree and agree on things when it comes to politics and what happens in the world. But when it comes to our connection about what happened to our loved ones in nursing homes, like his uncle, you know, the story he tells about his uncle helping him come to the United States, help his family come to the United States. It's quite it's quite a story he tells. And so I'm grateful to

him. And I feel like I have an ally of him in a world where I really need their support. And he can be somebody inside of there to say, this is what we need to do. And let's do the right thing. Yeah, because right now, he's going to go off, I predict, into private practice, get a job with a posh law firm, make a few million bucks a year and say, oh, changing standards. You know, I just didn't understand. As if men who are 64 years old elsewhere don't know not to grab their executive assistant's breast underneath her blouse or squeeze her bottom and hold his hand there while doing a selfie or touch the chest of a woman who comes to meet them in a rope line or rub a state trooper's belly.

Who's just trying to protect him. This creep who pulled her over onto his detail before she was even allowed to be there. She was so young and inexperienced, but he clearly caught, she clearly caught his eye. Right. So like, he's going to go off into private practice and be like, Oh, changing standards. And maybe in five years, he says, I'm going to throw my hat back in the ring for national politics. And unless, unless these legislators or the, those who are investigating him on the nursing home scandals do something more, it's possible. I don't think he has a lot of friends right now. You know, if, if there was the possibility that he had allies, I would think that there was more of a possibility of that. But I think he's burnedan Farrow and he's writing about Andrew Cuomo's misdeeds, it's probably pretty lethal. So listen, he doesn't have many friends and he doesn't have anywhere to go or to hide. And all of the people that work around him

are jumping off the ship like rats. So I don't know if he comes back from this. Um, but I suppose if you're Andrew Cuomo, you probably think you can survive anything. Well, let's talk for a minute about the me too aspect of it, because, um, you know, there, there are people now defending Andrew Cuomo asking, you know, saying this is a political hit job. Even our friend Tucker, we both love Tucker, was saying, you know, Lindsay Boylan, where was she? Why didn't she come forward earlier? You know, and there's no question that some politics are involved in this. Whenever a politician finds himself in the Me Too lens, you got to ask what

the politics are. Tish James does want his job. One of those guys who did the report had gone after Andrew Cuomo in the past on other scandals. So it wasn't completely independent, even though she wasn't doing the investigation herself. That's true. But I don't see how you dismiss all these women as political operatives when there's no evidence of that. And honestly, the thing about Lindsay Boylan, think about it. You know as well as I do. You're working for the governor of New York. The guy was singularly powerful in this state in a way we hadn't seen in recent history. And even though it was post Me Too, post Roger Ailes, post Harvey Weinstein,

2018, when this allegedly happened to her, you have the same fears. No one else is going to come forward. You're going to be left twisting out there by yourself. He's got all the power. I've got none. He's a huge bully, huge bully. And indeed, he did retaliate against her,

if you believe the Tish James report. So I just think, you know, you got to, you got to understand where, what it's like to be the powerless one in a relationship like this. Absolutely. And I love Tucker as well. And he certainly helped me with, you know, bringing my voice into the open about the nursing home issue. Uh, Tucker was the one I went on his show the day after I decided to come forward with my story. But I was very disappointed to hear that he was, you know, sort of questioning why these women didn't come forward beforehand. And I say to men, you haven't walked in our shoes. You have no idea. Pretty much

every job that I have ever been in, there has been some sort of harassment and you either, you know, take it or you leave. That was the problem. You know, there was there was never an avenue to go to complain, you know, I want you to talk to your wife. I want you to talk to other women before you go forward and say, well, I don't really know if I believe this story. And I think she's politically motivated, um, because he doesn't know what we women have to go through with these powerful bosses, with these men that are in power. And, and in some cases they get into this powerful position to be able to do this kind of thing. You know, think about it. He's got grown men and their families in tears with his threatening and bullying. Think of what he, think of how it'd be for a young executive assistant, for example, you know, to try to cross him and think about Lindsay Boylan, who wanted a future in democratic politics in New York, what she's thinking, like, no one's going to believe me. He's going to kill me. And sure enough, when she came forward, we now know that the governor's office, according to Tish James, went to this guy who's now running human rights campaign, this woke organization that fights for LGBTQ issues and said, hey, give me her personnel file, because that guy had once worked for the governor and he did it. And then it was used against her. She leaked to the media by the Cuomo team. I mean, they did retaliate against Lindsay Boylan. She had

very good reason to fear him, as it turned out. She's the one who's now going to file a civil lawsuit for what was done for her because it's illegal. So her concerns were really well founded. And I'm grateful to her because she was sort of the first one to go forward. And I haven't talked to Charlotte Bennett, who also came forward. But I believe the reason she did is because of Lindsay. So there is that domino effect, that woman who comes forward and then the others feel safe enough to do the same. And with Charlotte, if you do some research with her, um, with her story, she did go to a superior and they did not

address her issues. Instead they moved her. Yeah. So Lindsay had, you know, nowhere to go, nowhere to no one to talk to and no one to complain to. And what about the state trooper? What was she reluctantly came for? She never came forward until the investigation got started with the attorney general. And she she basically had it had been witnessed and she got pulled in there and told the truth. But, you know, if you look at the story of these women, it doesn't I understand the need to say, is this political? Always when it involves a politician, you got to do that, but you got to follow it through and be open-minded to maybe it isn't political. And it's just the thought of all 11 of these women, the woman on the rope line

who was waiting there to meet the guy who was a fan, you know, like what she made up some weird story about him touching her breasts and pushing in on the letters just for, I don't know. It's just, I think, um, as far as we've come, we haven't come far enough. And I think I understand the need to not be a cancel culture warrior. You know, I don't think you're that person and I'm not that person. Um, but this is different. This is illegal. This is sexual abuse, assault, harassment. There's a reason it's unlawful under the law. You can't put people, whether it's a woman or a man in lower positions of power in the position of having to lose their job or go along with somebody fondling them. That's just an impossible place. Yes. And you know, I have to say this in Tucker's defense and other men who, you know, have felt like they have been wronged by the system. You know, Tucker's been accused, falsely accused of, of harassment as well. So I can understand why some of these men

are, you know, have a lot of questions as well. You know, is their story real? Because I've been attacked and I've been, people have come after me for, for false accusations. So I get that. I get that men are, you know, certainly weary and afraid that some women will not tell the truth, but there is a pattern of behavior with this governor. And so we can't ignore that. Well, that's, I think about it too, from not just a legal standpoint, cause I'm a lawyer and due process is owed to those being accused, but as a mom of two boys, you know, I have two boys and a girl, as you know, you're the godmother of one of those sons and you have two boys. And I don't want them to find themselves in a situation when they go off to college or after where for, it doesn't even have to be political. It could

just be vindictive reasons. Let's say a team of women, three or four or whatever women decide, let's get him. You know, let's say they turn out to be just big personalities or sort of arrogant. Let's God forbid, but if they do, they could be targeted. And so there does have to be a standard for the women coming forward as well. You know, proof has to be offered. It has to be contemporaneous. It can't be 30-year-old Christine Blasey Ford type allegations. These were these were very recent in time. They were witnessed by other people.

There was a full-fledged investigation where Cuomo was allowed to defend himself. And I think if this goes to a court of law, the standard will be much, much higher, much, much higher. I don't see anything happening in the court of law, to be honest with you, in terms of these potential criminal charges. But this was a court of public opinion. And people are free to believe that Tish James report versus Andrew Cuomo's lengthy defense, which is in writing too, or not. It turns out in this case, I mean, virtually everyone sided against him. And listen, I wonder if there wasn't the other charges of the nursing home and the other abuse of power, you know, using state resources to give

out friends and family COVID tests to his friends and, you know, to his friends and family, including Chris Cuomo and using state resources to drive to his home in the Hamptons and then actually do the test and then drive upstate to get the test, you know, done. That takes hours to do that while nursing homes couldn't test incoming patients. So the abuse of power doesn't just go to the harassment. It goes to the other big investigations into this governor. So if it was just the sexual harassment, you know, obviously there would be a case to be made. But I think the fact that there are all these other piles that this governor has left in his wake that kind of speak to the character of this person.

And I think the Me Too stuff is easier for lawmakers to digest and to get him on than story that will play in the media and is easy to point the finger only at him on. Because let's face it, I mean, I see Cuomo like a big giant, like a strong giant, kind of a monstrous figure standing over the city of New York, right? And he was untouchable. You could never bring him down. Those humans below slinging their little arrows at him. But what happened with the nursing home scandal was you, Ron Kim and others who just wouldn't let it go weakened that big giant. You know, the legs had taken too many hits and he wasn't standing quite as strong anymore. And those around him were starting to get worried that he was going to go down and take them with him. And then the women came along in this airplane and took shots from up above. And he was just weak enough that he went down. Whereas if, if it had just been the nursing homes or it had just been the women, it wouldn't have happened. And so those politicians kind of used the women's testimonials to, to get rid of a guy who was becoming deeply problematic

for the nursing home and related reasons you just listed? Absolutely. I think the nursing home issue also implicates a lot of other powerful people, lobbyists, Medicaid, Medicare, the rot that is underneath the floorboards when it comes to our nursing home system here in the United States, which is corrupt, I believe, that needs to be cleaned up and overhauled. They didn't want to get into the weeds with that stuff because again, it would take down big people, a lot of money. So they thought to themselves, well, here's something that we can really use to our advantage. And it's also salacious. For some reason, the media doesn't like to talk about our elderly and their deaths because it doesn't sell newspapers and it doesn't, you know, bring eyeballs to the cable news networks. Well, it would have if they could

have blamed it on Trump. I mean, there's zero chance that would have been front page news every day had Trump been responsible for that order. But because it was a Democrat, Andrew Cuomo in particular, they had no interest. Up next, what about Chris Cuomo vacationing in the Hamptons on his boat after having taken his helicopter? Seriously, this is the life this guy's leading while he's attacking women behind the scenes. What about him? That's next. Can I just ask you to comment on Chris Cuomo and the way that's going now? Because now the reports are that not only was he advising the brother behind the scenes, okay, everybody's like, oh, he advised his brother. I understand that. It's not about the advising of the brother. It's not about how he behaved as a brother. It's about how he behaved as a news anchor, not disclosing any of it to his audience,

doing it behind the scenes, then going out there when caught by the Washington Post and saying, oh, I care deeply about sexual harassment. And like, whoops, it was just about my family. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. How is he supposed to report on sexual harassment issues now? He sided against all the women. He didn't disclose it. He wasn't honest. And now we know that even though he promised he would not continue advising Andrew Cuomo, there's a report out today saying, you know, he has been. So he did. He broke that to be unbiased and bring information without judgment.

Well, he's failed many times at this. And it's CNN's fault. I mean, they're the ones that never disciplined him. And for many years, he wasn't able to have his governor on, his brother, who was a governor of New York, to talk about issues for the ethical concerns. And then what happened during the pandemic was all about ratings, right? So Andrew Cuomo is riding high. He is the pandemic politician. They love him, the love gov. And Chris Cuomo says, let me bring my brother on now when he's a hero. I want to roll in it. Absolutely. And so that happened and he was on many times and they never talked about the issues or the body bags piling up outside of nursing homes. Never question at least should have been asked. But Chris Cuomo chose to ignore it. hour with a giant Q-tip, I would not be here because that's what got me angry. That's what

got my grief to turn to anger and advocacy is those two clowns on CNN talking about his love life and who makes the best meatballs. So I'm grateful actually for that ridiculous hour of television where he wasn't ethical and he brought his brother on to talk about their love life. But now we fast forward to today where his brother has taken a week off. How interesting the timing. He takes the week off where his brother steps down and doesn't talk about any of the issues. After for months and months and months, that's all he did was bring his brother on to talk about no issues that were happening in New York state. I think CNN should fire him. I really do. There's enough there. And actually, he's involved in some of these investigations by advising his brother and

giving him advice and actually telling him that maybe he should perhaps retaliate against some of these young women. So he might be implicated. So I wonder if that's going to sort of unfold. But I think we, you and I know well enough that CNN is probably not going to do anything at all. The thing that's really bothering me about it that I just, I can't get past is I grew up in New York state. I've lived my whole life in New York state and in Albany, which is the seat of power for most of it. And the Cuomo name is like gold. They're, they're the next generation Kennedys. Mario Cuomo was totally beloved. I mean, he was, he ran for president. They really thought he was going to be president. But within the state of

New York, absolutely adored. So these they're part of a political dynasty, these two kids, now now adults, Andrew and Chris, that I don't believe they would have achieved anything near what they've achieved had it not been for their Cuomo name, their connections, their privilege, their, you know, growing up around powerful people and having those folks to help them out later in life. And just the name itself opens doors. Just ask any Kennedy, they'll tell you. And so they're in these enormous positions of power and privilege thanks to that name. And when things are going great for Andrew Cuomo, and he looks like the world's leader, Cuomo, sexuals and all, Chris wants to revel in it. He wants to roll around in it and he has him on.

And it's basically a, forgive the term, circle jerk. But that's what happened. These two are on the air, you know, fondling one another figuratively about how amazing they are. And then remarks were made by Chris Cuomo towards his brother about how you're the greatest politician ever and so on. And he wanted the glory for himself as well. And Andrew knew just where to go to celebrate only what was being portrayed as his accomplishments. All the negative ignored, not even touched on as people were dying, you know, Mickey and Dee among them dying. And now, now that the shoe's on the other foot, now that, you know, it's hit the fan. They go underground. Now I can't cover my brother. Clearly, I can't touch. I can't touch the scandals, obviously, because I'm biased. Now he goes underground. Now he goes on vacation. Now we see him in the post this week on his helicopter going to and from the Hamptons. Then on his big boat, all these millions. He reportedly gets six million dollars a year from CNN. Why? Again, because of his name. Don't tell me otherwise. The two of them sitting there and conspiring against a person like Lindsey Boylan, Lindsey, whose dad was a Marine,

Lindsey, whose mom was on food stamps, who got pregnant with her older sibling at age 16 and had to pull herself up. Lindsey, who's entirely self-made, gets a position in the governor's office, sees nothing but opportunity in front of her, and then gets kissed on the lips by this creep. Told he wants to play strip poker with her. No one's claiming that's like a rape, but trust me, it's extremely diminishing and jarring. And it's a fall for a woman where she thinks she's coming up on her own merit only to realize it's something else. The thought of these two jerks using all that power and privilege against someone like her and all the other women, the executive assistants, the cop. It's infuriating to me. How can CNN not answer for that? How can they ignore that like it's nothing? How can a law firm hire Andrew Cuomo

and say generational conflict? Bullshit. Something more must be done. Chris Cuomo has to speak to this. Jeff Zucker has to do something about this. I don't know if it's fixable, recoverable, changeable in any way, but some sort of accountability must be unleashed. Listen, you're preaching to the choir. I agree on all of that. But what can we change? We can talk about it. We can raise awareness, which is what we've been doing. Karma eventually makes its way around. And sometimes it takes a long time, Megan, but I think I'm old enough to know that it does happen. It doesn't maybe happen in the way we want it to, but even if it's at the end of their lives and they have to go up to the pearly gates and knock on the door and someone comes

and says, you know, you have some things you need to take care of before you get in here. You know, um, I think you just have to, it's like, I can't take the weight of the world on our shoulders, right? We just have to, to know that somewhere down the line, do you really think that Chris Cuomo is a happy guy? I tend to think probably not. Right. I don't know him or his family. but somebody like him who's kind of gotten away with stuff because of his name all of his life, at some point something's going to happen. Something's got to give. And we might not see it in our lives or on television, but I do believe that eventually your actions come back in ways that maybe we will never know. I have to say, I feel for the guys like Jake Tapper, who, you know, I know that the right doesn't like him. He definitely was not pro Trump. And you could see that in his reporting. But I think he's a decent man. And I've seen him.

He did try to ask questions about the nursing home scandal, though he was at CNN. He did speak as the only person at CNN who spoke out about this scandal and Chris Cuomo and said he put us in a terrible spot, you know, obviously inappropriate. Can you imagine how frustrating it is for him to look around and see the boss not doing anything about this? I know Jake Tapper. I'm friends with him. You know, we haven't gone out or socialized, but we are friends via social media and he does text me. And he has been very good about trying to let me know that he's doing his best to bring the situations to light on his network that I've been fighting for, I do feel for him. And I do think he is one of the good guys that has been trying to do good. So for people like Jake Tapper, I'm thankful. I know that Stelter, Brian Stelter was on Colbert last night and Colbert asked him a few questions

about Chris Cuomo and he didn't really know how to answer them. He tried to dismiss it all as an optics problem on his show that he was forced to do this past weekend as an optics problem. It's not an optics problem. It's an actual behavioral issue that Chris committed by joining the governor's team without disclosing it to his audience or anyone at CNN. Yeah, you're right then. You know, the Chris Cuomo issue and the fact that no one has spoken spoken out about that is is quite something. I don't know. I just think, you know, at Fox, when everything went down, the women privately joined together and then did speak up. You heard from them in droves so far. Crickets over there. And maybe they condone it. Maybe they have no problem with what Chris Cuomo did. Maybe they're not in the Jake Tapper camp and they think he should advise away because there's a brotherly relationship and damn the ethics of journalism. It wouldn't be the first

time CNN had basically taken that attitude. But I just think a lot of people are showing their colors right now and they're so tribal and they're so political. And this story, it's been that way from the beginning. All right. Let me ask you before I let you go. I was thinking about you last night. I did not want to talk to you because I wanted our first time to be on the show today. Did you have a big glass of wine? Did you and Sean have a moment? Like, was there a moment, JD, where you, you know, you sat together and said, oh my God, it happened. No, but that will come. We had a memorial for Mickey and D on Monday at, at Mickey's firehouse that he was at for 23 years, uh, engine three 23, uh, flat Bush,

Brooklyn. And, uh, you know, God bless them who put that together. They really put the whole memorial together. We really didn't have to do anything. And they had, you know, priests there, we had a full mass. Um, and we had friends and family that came. My mom came from Canada. I haven't seen her in 20 months. And we had Dee's sister come from Texas. if Andrew Cuomo resigned when we were honoring our in-laws, something that we weren't able to do when they died because we were in quarantine. We weren't able to have wakes or funerals or last rites and we didn't see them before they died. But then yesterday, Sean came home and he said, I'm glad it didn't happen on the Memorial Day because it was about Mickey and D and the Cuomo stuff would have taken over that narrative. Right. It happened the day after. And so we had a moment where, you know, he, you know, Sean, it's overwhelming for him. This is overwhelming.

He doesn't want to be a public figure at all. He married the wrong gal then. Right. But listen, uh, you know how much he means to me. He's the best guy I've ever known. And he is the father to my most blessed children. But I know that he's proud of me. He's proud. And he has said to me several times that he knows that Mickey and Dee are looking down

and smiling. And so we will have our glass of wine. I'm actually, I'm taking off this Friday and all of next week to hang out with Stella and my family and we'll have our glass of wine and we will, you know, we will raise our glasses, but we're not done. We're not done yet. You know, it's still, I still want the nursing home investigation to continue and all of the investigations, um, that are ongoing against this governor. And then maybe, you know, maybe then we can, we can toast to success. Uh, I think you're entitled to one now. Uh, you may, you may

be three quarters of the way there, not all the way there, but you're, it's time for a glass of wine and you should be looking for a special delivery from me and Doug to help you along. Love you, lady. Love Sean. Say hi to Stella for me too. And really proud of you. I look forward to toasting with you at two, my friend. Up next, Stu Bergeer. He's going to count to five seconds in a moment you're going to want to hear. But before we get to that, it is time for another edition of You Can't Say That, or Think That, or Do That. Oh, wait, this is America. And today we've got something new. Now it's also time for You Can't Shout That at a Baseball Game. A couple of nights ago at a Colorado Rockies baseball game, this could be heard during the broadcast. Okay, now

listen, we're going to play it for you. You're going to hear the announcer in the foreground. Don't listen to him. Listen to the crowd in the foreground. Don't listen to him. Listen to the crowd in the background. There's going to be sort of a loud crowd noise. Try to listen for the word that you hear. Then it gets a little dull, a little lower, quieter. And then again, you hear a background crowd. And the same word is repeated.

See if you can hear it. No. And again, it's 2-0. And this is not to pick on Ben. All right. Again, listen to that background crowd first when they pop up, then it gets quieter. Then again, listen one more time. What did that sound like to you? Maybe it does sound a little like the N-word. But before we all go jumping to the conclusion that a fan behind home plate was screaming the N-word at a black baseball player in front of a field stadium full of people with TV cameras rolling and so on, let's consider

a couple of other facts. The Colorado Rockies have a mascot whose name is Dinger. Dinger, which is another word for a home run. I did not know that, but it is. Dinger is a Triceratops dinosaur. And if you were watching the clip, instead of just hearing the clip, you can actually see Dinger behind home plate, a few rows away from where the fan was screaming. The fan, by the way, can clearly be seen gesturing toward the dinosaur named Dinger, trying to get his attention. Immediately after this started making the rounds, the Colorado Rockies and Major League Baseball Players Association put out statements condemning this terrible act. What did the media do? What they always do. Uncritically, unskeptically reported the story as if a racial slur was said. A few hours later, the Rockies announced they investigated the incident.

And well, it was dinger after all. Can we hear it one more time? No. And again, it's 2-0. And this is not to pick on Ben. Hmm. But even after we all knew that it was actually dinger and the investigation told us so, and not the other word, USA Today ran a column asking, quote, what word did you hear that Rockies fan yell? The answer probably depends on your life experience. OK, so if you heard the word dinger, you're just a racist. But if you can make your way out to Denver for a baseball game, remember, if you're thinking of saying the mascot's name, which will likely be changed after this week, let's face that.

Well, you can't say that. And now back to Stu Bergeer right after this. Stu, good to see you. Hi, Megan. How are you? Thanks for being here. Wow. OK, so give us the big 30,000 foot perspective on the fall of Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo is awful and he's awful for so many reasons. And I think a lot of people look understandably at this and say Andrew Cuomo is awful because of the

nursing home scandal or Andrew Cuomo is awful because of the sexual harassment scandal and totally a legitimate way to look at this. However, I do think it's backwards in this particular case. I think Andrew Cuomo is so awful at his core that these things are just byproducts of the type of person that he is. It's impossible for a person like him to be in power for this long and these types of things not happen. He is completely self-absorbed. All he cares about is himself and his own power. And he abused people around him for such a long time that not only do these scandals occur, but that people are actually willing to hold him at some level accountable. In many other cases, if he had a better relationship with some

of these Democrats around him, he may have skated through all of this. I mean, as scary as that is to think about, he may have been able to get away with this. But because he has been he was skating through the nursing home scandal. He was I think in a way, I think all of these things were necessary for this to occur. I think you needed not just the sexual harassment scandal, but you needed the nursing home scandal, which in many ways made other Democrats also look bad who defended him. I mean, they were, as you remember, of course, Megan, he was the guy. I mean, they were talking about him replacing Joe Biden on the ticket because people were so nervous about Biden. He was he had a 72 percent approval rating in New York. And that that type of person doesn't get taken down, I think, by one thing. left so many people out there looking so silly for elevating him. And then when all of this information, which were things that, you know, that some conservatives were talking about, some in the New York Post was talking about it, some publications were talking about what he did with the nursing home scandal. The fact that that was out there and it seemed like some conservative evil attack after this wonderful governor, America's governor.

And the fact that that all turned out to be true and backed up by Democrats that he appointed really, I think, took a toll and set the stage for this series of events. It was the the the nursing home scandal in a way was like the covid lab leak theory. It was not to be reported on. It was not to be discussed. Only cranks were discussing such a thing. How can you blame deaths in nursing homes during a pandemic on a governor? This is totally unfair. And it's like the normal journalistic instinct is to say, is it unfair? Let me bring my skepticism to this story and every story and any claim by a governor that he's done perfectly and see what I find. And you would have found what the attorney general found, which was he issued this order over massive objections from the medical

community saying, don't do this. This is dangerous to the most vulnerable population. Look how much they're making us go through right now. Our kids have to wear masks in school, lest one of them, then they're not vectors for the virus, somehow contract it and managed to get through the mask and managed to bring it home to grandma because they're so worried about that one grandma dying. Never mind sending a bunch of COVID positive patients into nursing homes. It's so clear now, no interest in it. Yeah, it really is fascinating. I was talking to someone about this and they were like, well, you know, remember, this is March of 2020. We don't know a lot about the virus. Lots of people made mistakes.

And that is actually true. I think there is a legitimate level of grace that should be allowed for public figures at that time in particular who didn't know everything about COVID. But stop and think about what this quote unquote mistake was. You are importing COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes around the most vulnerable. You're guaranteeing their import people, you know, that are currently testing positive for COVID-19. In addition to that, and he was one of a few governor, I believe, in the entire country who also prevented nursing homes from even testing incoming patients for covid-19 because he worried in their own words that they would be discriminating against covid-19 positive patients as if it was like their skin color or something. That's not discrimination in a pandemic to say that we shouldn't have people around the most vulnerable in our society that we know have a deadly virus. This isn't a mistake.

It's not something that can be blown off as some some understandable malfeasance in the middle of a difficult situation this is like insanely obvious to every living human being on earth that you don't do this it's obvious he even stated he knew they were the most vulnerable and still went along with it it is among the worst single decision made by any public figure here to Wuhan throughout this entire tragedy? Think about it. It was March, April last year. We were quarantining for the most part in Montana. While there, you had to wear a mask. There was that period where you couldn't go out at all, of course. The whole nation was basically locked up. But then you had to wear a mask because lest a droplet get out of your mouth and onto another person and spread.

And yet this is when this is when he issued the order saying, take people who have the virus, put them in the nursing homes where the nurses were saying, governor, they're basically going to be right next to an elderly patient who doesn't have COVID because this is not Montana. We don't have a lot of room. We don't have a lot of facilities. These are not sprawling buildings. They're going to be on top of each other. That's not safe. And he said, shut up and do it anyway. And when the when the when the non sick got sick, he blamed the nurses, the elderly, God, the media, everyone but himself. Yep. Yes. 100 percent true, Megan. And they and what's incredible about this is he was told point blank right after this order by the nursing homes themselves who said, we don't have the people. Our people are at home quarantining. We don't have

the protections. We don't have the masks and all the things that we might need. We don't have the protections. We don't have the masks and all the things that we might need. We don't have private rooms. They specifically said that these people were going to be in there probably next to other people who didn't have COVID. And we're never going to know the true toll of what this was. They're still undercounting deaths overall in New York. Their numbers are different than the CDC's. We have a situation where we can only we can only guess at what the actual death toll here was. But I mean, it has to be in the thousands, thousands of people for a decision that I think anybody you don't need to be a scientist. You don't need to have anything other than the most basic common sense to say, let's not stick the people who are sick with a contagious virus next to the people who are most likely to die from it. And he didn't care. He did it anyway. And when it all went down, he launched an investigation against the nursing homes. That's the type of person Andrew Cuomo is. Yeah. You talk to the nurses. They don't have a lot of

nice things to say about him. And yet, what do you make of the fact that it was a Me Too issue that technically brought him down? I just talked with Janice Dean about, you know, people saying this wasn't due process that, you know, that Tish James had an ax to grind. You know, what do you make of that? Well, partially, I would say to start that a Me Too issue is bringing him down is a huge part of this. I would also say a Janice Dean issue is a huge part of this i would also say a janice dean issue is a big part of this um without janice dean there is no way this would have happened no way she's the single most important person in all of this because she and i think you know partially because partially because i mean she because it's so unexpected from her. She's like the nicest person in the universe. And I think completely incentivized to not speak out about this. I don't

think she wanted this. I don't think she she wanted to be the face of this. And she single handedly was a just a firestorm making sure he was held accountable. I love her to death. And I can't say enough about her and everything that she did here, because, you know, you know, her her fantastic book is, you know, a collection of multiple books, collections of stories about these warm things. You know, a parent, a teacher does something wonderful for a child. And then here she is just out there laying it out, not holding back at all. It was, I think, jolting to people who who would normally maybe let one of these scandals go by as political nonsense. The fact that she was able to dismiss. Right. So hard to dismiss. Yes, she works at Fox

News, but it's like two minutes spent listening to her will tell you this is not some partisan operative. Can I tell you something, Stu? This is reminding me. When Janice and I, you know, we're obviously very close friends. When we were talking to one another about the Roger Ailes investigation, which was so super charged, it was before there was a Me Too movement. You know, everyone was scared. We didn't know what to do. We knew what the truth was, but we didn't really want to go talk to investigators and all that stuff. And I had gone in and I knew Janice needed to go in. She had a disturbing story. And the night before she was supposed to go in, I talked to her and she was like, I can't do it. I don't think we should do it. You know, we have to protect

our families. She doesn't make a lot of money. She's a meteorologist. She has a nice living, but her husband's a firefighter. She's a meteorologist. She's not basking in 18 million dollars like Governor Cuomo is, according to what I heard this morning. She's like, we know we have to protect our families. You know, I need my job and I don't want to go against this guy. And I totally got all of it. And I think about that version of Janice, who, by the way, did go in. She she had a moment of doubt, but she got up the next morning. She went in. Sean and I were talking to her. And it was funny because Sean had the infamous line, the Long Island Railroad is depressing. She had written it home and sort of decided, I can't do this.

I'm like, J.D., I'm getting you a car. You're taking a car service. Anyway, that it's been such a journey for her. Right. So to go from that woman to like all these people, the CNNers, the the the actors, the Soledad O'Brien's of the world coming for her. She just wouldn't be stopped. No, I mean, it really is a powerful story. I mean, and now it's you know, it's been multiple times in her life. I mean, you know, it's it might be what she's here to do.

You know, I mean, it really it really does. You're getting me today, Stu. I mean, it's does. You get me today, Stu. It's a tough one to look past. I mean, her role in this was so incredibly important. And she would be on the cover of Time magazine if she worked any place other than Fox News. It's a great point. It's a great point. And I think that's of course, you've seen, you know, I know you covered the people who tried to dismiss her in that way. She works for Fox News. What does she know? They tried it. It did not work. You know, and I think it works against most people at Fox. You know, I mean, it worked at Fox for a while and it worked for a lot of people. You could kind of dismiss Fox News. What can you do? Janice is able to overcome that. That's not common.

I mean, she's she's uncommon. I would say that, you know, to your question about about me, too. You know, it's interesting because it's such a central. That's why I keep looking at it this way, where these these scandals individually are byproducts of who he is. You look at the scandal of me, too. And yes, he was. I read the report. I'm sure you read the report. There's a lot of detail in there about a lot of things that he did that were completely wrong and terrible. But it really wasn't just a report about sexual harassment. It went much, much deeper than that, to the point where people in his office were continually terrified of him. And the people who were accusing him were terrified of him. It was about ruining the lives of the people who did accuse him. You know, a lot of people keep saying, all right, well, these were Democrats that were actually bringing this report, which is a big deal. It's also Democratic accusers, people who who was who who their livelihood was wrapped around the Democratic Party and the Democratic message.

People who loved him, people who loved him, who said it was their dream job to work for him. People who came out just to shake his hand on a on a line for to meet a politician and one of getting groped in the middle of it. I mean, it's not every little piece of this, Megan. It shows that he's just a bad guy from beginning to end. And I don't know without all of these pieces together, if this could have happened, you needed the Janice Deans of the world to step up and be brave and call all of this out. You needed the women who are Democrats, who had to fear for their own livelihoods, who had to fear for how they would be treated in the press. We've seen what people like Melissa DeRosa did to them in the press and other.

The jackal. She's his jackal. That's how I refer to her. Also, that rich as a party. As a party. He's the one who dismissed Janice. She's not an expert in anything but the weather. How you like me now, Rich? That's what Janice is tweeting. It's true. And that that culture is just was everywhere. And he eventually you wind up hiring people who are willing to go along with this. And so he had enough of those people around to keep these voices quiet for a really long time. But eventually they were heard. And thank God. It's such a good point. The one of the accusers who only came forward to the attorney general and sweet gal, she actually issued an apology to the other women saying, I'm sorry, I didn't come forward earlier, which is totally unnecessary. I mean, it's just it's such a complicated issue for any any target of sexual

harassment to decide, you know, for her personally, whether whether to come forward. But anyway, she gave an interview to CBS this morning and talked about and this is his executive assistant. She's listed in the report as executive assistant number one. Here is now she's come out as Brittany Camiso talking about Governor Cuomo and what he did. The hugs at first were hugs, and then they were hugs when he would pull me close to the point where he could feel my breast on his chest. With my right hand, I took the selfie. I then felt, while taking the selfie, his hand go down my back, onto my butt,

and he started rubbing it. Not sliding it, not, you know, quickly brushing over it, rubbing my butt. I became so nervous that my hands were clearly shaking. Came back to me and that's when he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra. I mean, I know people want to dismiss this as like, ah, where were these women? All right. This is a young woman who just, she only reluctantly came forward when the AG got involved. She has no axe to grind. It's not like she'd been bitter and fired. And you know, this is a young woman just trying to make a career in Democrat politics as an executive assistant. Really tough to dismiss. This isn't a situation. And I say this

with all due respect to the Trump accusers, but they hated Trump. You know, like most of the women who came forward hadn't worked for Trump, hadn't been total loyalists to Trump. These were women who and I'm not saying I disbelieve them in any way. I interviewed them when I was on NBC. I'm just saying I understand why there was more of a political air and scandal and accusations in the Trump case. But like you look at Roy Moore, the women who came out against him, they were Republicans. In this case, these are Democrats. And so I think it's a little easier. And Christine Blasey Ford was obviously not a supporter of President Trump. So it's like in this case, it doesn't line up the way the detractors of MeToo accusers tend to want it to.

Yeah, I think there's real reason to to treat anything with real political consequences with some skepticism. I mean, anytime someone makes an accusation, the person who's accused really does deserve due process. That's not just a silly slogan. That's really, really important here. I think, though, you look at the credibility of this particular accuser, executive assistant number one in the report, you know, as you point out, she didn't even try to report this. She she told her friends about it and her friends believed they were legally required to report it. That's the only reason anyone knew about it. And when the story hit the Albany Times Union, she didn't even know it was coming. So like this is a real, you know,

a different situation. She has real credibility and multiple accusers in the report have the same type of credibility. The troopers, another one who didn't have any intention of talking about this at all. But I mean, you mentioned in there, she talks about what happened in this photo. And she outlines that he rubbed her butt in the middle of this photo. And it says for at least five seconds. And I remember thinking about that. Think about this. One, two, three, four, five. that is one two three four five does that not blow your mind how much time that is when you

really experience it uh this was i mean creepy does not begin to describe it and that that particular accusation because of the way it came through the system, because she didn't even report it for a long time and was basically dragged into the report unwillingly. That's I think that's really powerful. And now she's going even further, trying to make sure that he's held accountable. The fact that she's apologizing for not coming forward earlier is heartbreaking, I think. And it breaks anybody's heart who hears it unless you happen to be a Cuomo. Most women. Right, right. Exactly. Most women want nothing, nothing to do with this. Most women are horrified it happened, not even necessarily because it's traumatic.

Exactly. It's not like I don't know. Let me let me put it to this way. I just had a conversation with a 20 year old woman who needed my advice, who had been, her boss had come on to her and in a totally inappropriate way. And she didn't know what to do. And I, and you know, I, I talked to her and I was like, you know what, I got to tell you, I'm sorry to tell you this won't be the last time it's it as a woman, especially she's an attractive woman attractive woman sadly it's still part and parcel of coming up in a professional world and there are all sorts of complicated reasons why men and women are attracted to each other men tend to think beautiful women want them no matter what whether they're the boss whether they're unattractive whether they they just think all of us want them anyway and they make stupid mistakes and if it's a one-off thing i think it's forgivable even if

it's a two-off thing it's forgivable if it's a one off thing, I think it's forgivable. Even if it's a two off thing, it's forgivable. If it's an 11 off thing, it's less forgivable. So like, this is the position she found herself in. And I don't think there's reason to discount her, her testimonial or that of the other women in this case, having read having read them all. I really don't. I think people can be assured that Cuomo did get due process. He sat for 11 hours with Tish James. He released his own statement. He had way more access to microphones and television shows than any of these women did. And that's one of the things that's driving me insane, Stu, is that these two Cuomo brothers sat there, these two, these two brats of privilege with the Cuomo family name, with access to this television show every night, you know, to use however they wanted, and they used it to promote Andrew Cuomo as the second coming. Lindsey Boylan doesn't have a TV show. You know, this gal, Brittany Camiso,

she didn't have a TV show. They knew what would happen to them. And sure enough, it did. They did come for Lindsey. And now this guy Cuomo, Chris Cuomo's underground, right? He's on his boat and he's on his helicopter and he's in the Hamptons, but he won't speak. Now, suddenly when the shit hits the fan, he's like, who? Andrew,

who? Oh, I can't talk about him. He's my brother. I know. That whole saga is amazing. And I think that's the next step here. I mean, there's plenty of things that are going to go on with Andrew Cuomo, but the Chris Cuomo part of this is really, really important. You trace this back. They had a ban on Chris Cuomo interviewing Andrew Cuomo for obvious reasons who for anyone who's ever even heard of journalism, right? Like it's their brothers. They shouldn't be doing interviews. That's the crazy thing. He's a governor and his brother should not be interviewing him on any self-respecting network. And they lifted that ban at the most important time when Andrew Cuomo was in the middle of this nursing home order fiasco, when he was in the middle of making these terrible decisions during the beginning of COVID.

I mean, people look at it's interesting, you know, especially conservatives tend to look back at Andrew Cuomo and think, oh, he's this guy. He wants shutdowns all the time. That is not who he was at all at the beginning. In fact, he was continually all at the beginning in fact he was continually blowing off covid as if it were nothing people continually tell me hey uh you know i understand what you're saying about cuomo and yeah he's he's done a bad job but at the beginning those press conferences they really were reassuring well they were reassuring because he was continually lying about everything that was going on he was telling people that he was good at just the yeah, he was good at lying, which is a core characteristic of Andrew Cuomo. He would go out in front of the public and say, don't you don't need to change

your life. The worry is much worse than the virus. We have a pandemic of worry in this country. It's not the virus we have to worry about. He said the thing that conservatives were beat up for over and over again, that it was more people die in this country from the flu. This is not SARS. This is not Ebola. He continually downplayed this as if it weren't hurting people and encouraged them to go about living their lives. And while I'm highly critical of mandates and all of the things that wound up developing out of this virus, if there were any time where alarmism

may have been the right way to go, it was then, March in New York City. And he went the other way. And then after things got improved and we had tests and we understood the virus a little bit better, he went the wrong way then, too, and shut down to ridiculous extent and horrific effect on the people in his state he was going to implement another round of checks on the vaccine because he believed Donald Trump was manipulating it to win the election. We talk about vaccine skeptic skepticism. That was he was one of the main sources of it.

He told his he delayed the vaccines to the people again who most needed them in his state for a dumb political game, because that's all he cares about. All while he was letting people sit in the nursing homes untested and funneling tests out to his friends and family members, like, again, the brother, the brother with his fake act of emerging from quarantine. Meanwhile, he'd already been out and emerged and had a fight with a neighbor who knew he was infected because it had made news and said, what the hell are you doing out? And then he did the fake emergence from the basement scene on CNN. Another thing CNN allowed. It's like one thing after the other.

And honestly, Stu, like, I don't know whether CNN is going to do anything about him. But I just like the power differential that they used against these women as they as this guy conspired against them behind the scenes, using that name, using his connections. And no one seems to give a damn infuriates me. It is incomprehensible the way they've handled this. And look, the media deserves a lot of criticism for many things. And we do it all the time. I'm happy to criticize the media. But also, I think at times you can find there are people I used to work at CNN. I know people at CNN. Some of them are really good people and are doing their best to try to actually tell the stories that matter to people, even though I think it's less and less frequent by the

minute over at CNN. But there are still people over there. The fact that they treat Chris Cuomo this way is mind bending. They treat him as if he's like Michael Jordan in his prime and the Chicago Bulls need him to win a championship. This guy has no numbers. He has no ratings. I don't think anyone is interested in him other than the fact that he's involved in these scandals over and over and over again. And then he won't he won't even address it. They give him an out. You know, if he was, you know, as a as a host, I think if you were involved

in a scandal, Megan, if there's something going on, and I've heard you talk about things that have happened in your past, you just talked about one a few moments ago. It's really interesting to hear from a person that you trust, that you want to hear their perspective. If you're a Chris Cuomo viewer, then you want to hear what Chris Cuomo really thinks. And we know what he thinks. He thinks that these women are trash. He thinks that these women don't, they deserve to be trashed in the media. They deserve to be attacked. I mean, think about this.

In the report, there is an email that from Chris Cuomo, basically outlining the exact words that Andrew Cuomo said in his very first response to this. So while CNN is ostensibly trying to cover the news, Chris Cuomo is writing the news.

Think about that. He was literally writing the speech that CNN had to cover about this scandal and no punishment. They come out and say, hey, you know what? Look, we understand he's going to talk to his brother. We've said, you know, this isn't appropriate, though. We can't have this happen anymore. And then look at the reporting over the weekend. He was still advising him up till the very end, over and over and over again. He didn't stop. He promised not to do that. He promised that

he would not advise him further when he came out and he got caught by The Washington Post for doing it the first time. Yeah. And I have a little bit of, you know, it's interesting. I think certainly he was talking to his brother and that's it is widely reported. And you'd think, well, how did it get reported if he's talking one on one to his brother? Why would that be in all this news? And I think there's a real answer to that, which is in each one of these reports, he is identified as a person who was the calm, sensible voice when Andrew was waffling. I don't know. I might resign. I don't know. Maybe I should keep fighting. And Chris came in and Chris said, you know what? I think you need to resign. I think it's the right thing to do. I think this is a PR effort to protect Chris Cuomo. You're telling me that he leaked it. You think he leaked it or someone around him who's his ally did? I do. I mean, it was supposed to be an individual conversation between brother and brother. In fact,

that is their out in defending it. And that when he said the initial conversation about not being able to advise his brother anymore, the out was, well, he can't be advised in any conversations around AIDS. There can't be any like government employees involved. If he's talking to his brother, he's talking to his brother. We can't stop that. So this had to be by their telling a one on one conversation. How does that make it into every single mainstream press report about this? And the fact that Chris Cuomo was just happened to be the voice of reason in this situation. I think they've realized the Andrew Cuomo level is lost. The Chris Cuomo level is next and they need to do everything they can to protect

that. And I think the only way to make Chris look good in this is to say that, yes, he advised him, but he said the right thing. He was the voice of reason. He was standing up for these women at the at the last minute. He came to his senses right after he stuck the knife in them. Right. So people have said and I've heard people who I like say he defended his brother. You know, you can't they can't default the guy for defending his brother. It's not his behavior as a brother. That's the issue. It's his behavior as an anchor. You have dual responsibilities. I'm sorry for better for worse. He chose to sit in that chair at a network that reports on Andrew Cuomo. And he reported on Andrew Cuomo and interviewed him numerous times in the most laudable terms and ways. And therefore he stuck with it. He didn't, he made that bed.

Now he's going to have to lie in it. And it had it been me and God forbid a sibling of mine found themselves in that position. I were on the air at the Kelly file. I would have said, I do need to take a leave of absence. And I will be honest with you, I'm going to go help my brother. And so I'm disclosing to you that I have a I have a dog in this hunt. And you can understand why and try to explain it to my audience. And if they held it against me for being anti me too, or whatever the issue was, then I'd have to live with that. But it has to be disclosed. And you can't be on the air reporting on anything while you're doing while you're a partisan operative. That's not okay. It's not ethical. No, it's not OK. And it's especially not OK because of the way they handled it to allow Andrew to come on the air and be continually praised. And by the way, not not just praised,

but praised with a real contextual sort of understanding of what the situation was. You know, we kind of look back at those interviews with Chris and Andrew and you think, oh, well, that's when he took out the big nose, you know, the Q-tip and the nose swab. And like you kind of remember these moments. Oh, well, it was a funny laugh. But all of it was built around this idea that he was everything was going so well for Andrew Cuomo that he was doing such an incredible job that it was it was brothers busting on brothers like, oh, you think he says over and over again,

oh, you got some pretty you're pretty hot stuff now. I guess you got an answer for everything. You know, now everyone thinks you're attractive all of a sudden. Well, what does that joke mean? It implies that they think he's attractive because he's doing such an incredible job in leading America through this amazing crisis that only he seems to be able to handle. Well, that is a news position. That is a news position. They were all of the CNN coverage at that time was seen through this prism of Andrew Cuomo is essentially COVID God. And any questioning of what he's doing is not even worth bringing up. It's worth it's only worth as a as a fuel, essentially, for the idiotic Cuomo brothers stick.

And the fact that that when things turned badly and we realized all of that was fake, they just gave him this pass to not even mention it. I mean, it's it will be incomprehensible from the Huffington Post to do this. But CNN is supposed to be a news network. They're supposed to be the ones with all the credibility. And they have just abandoned it. Yeah. So can I ask you about the Time's Up role in this and the guy who runs HRC, the human rights campaign? I mean, that guy's one thing because he's supposed to be a woke activist and he worked for Cuomo and he had, I guess, Lindsay Boylan's personnel file. So I don't excuse anything he did, but I'm just saying his organization is meant to promote LGBTQ rights.

Time's Up is all about sexual harassment. That is that is literally the reason they were born was to fight on behalf of victims of sexual harassment. And what we now know is Tara Reid, who I interviewed, told me at the time she went to Times Up when she was accusing Joe Biden. They told her they wouldn't take her case because it involved politics, which turned out not to be true. Then she later finds out that Anita Dunn, who's on the board of Times Up, is advising Joe Biden, is basically his comms director behind the scenes. And they didn't want to take it because it was Joe Biden. That's, of course, why. And now we find out that this woman, Roberta Kaplan, who's the director, that Cuomo's office went to her and said, hey, would you help us take a look at the draft of the letter we're going to release of the statement we're going to release about Lindsay Boylan? And she was only too happy to oblige. She's now been forced out. But too little, too late. That that organization has been embarrassed out of its knee jerk instinct need to be close to power.

It's that's an incredible piece of this. It really is. I mean, first of all, it's fascinating to see that a woman was multiple women. I mean, DeRosa's another that were forced to step down before Cuomo actually did. And the jackal went that exactly. Roberta Kaplan went before he that was one of the things that like he had to go now. You can't have two women take the fall for all of his me too behaviors. And he's still sitting in the governor's mansion. Yeah. And I, you know, I firmly believe, by the way, that this was not a resignation. This was Andrew Cuomo only seeing that he had no other path. I mean, this is only self-preservation. It's not a resignation in that he thinks it's better for New York or thinks it's the right

thing to do. It's I this is the only way I can get through this. I know I'm going to get impeached. I have to step down. So even calling it a resignation, I'm uncomfortable with. But Time's Up and some of these other organizations, you realize how fake this stuff is. You realize that's so political. They don't believe word one of it. You know, you I was I was listening to your great interview with Andrew Sullivan the other day and you you talked to I was fantastic and he's great.

But in the middle, you talked you and Steve Krakauer, your producer, talked about this clip from Sharon Osbourne. The talk. Yes. I had not heard that clip. It blew my mind listening to it. It's crazy. The off-air comments about what they really felt about this, you know, this accusation that Sharon was some big racist. And they seem to basically admit, yeah, like, I don't really believe this, but I kind of have to say it because if i don't say anything you know i'll get beat up in the media

the same thing with the lebron james uh advisor in the espn saga where he was saying like i you know oh this stuff this me too and and and black lives matter it's driving me crazy and i i really do think a lot of this is real and And you think about like media like yours, for example, independent media, the blaze. We do this as well here. At least we try to where we're incentivized, incentivized to say the thing that is uncomfortable. We're incentivized to say the thing that we mean, even if, you know, a good chunk of our audience might hate us that day, but that's our job to do that. And you realize that the average person has almost no ability to be able to speak up in

these situations. They feel as if every piece of pressure is against them telling the truth of what they really believe. Even these high levels of media, they don't even feel that they can be honest with their own audiences. And that is a tragedy, I think, for a country that values free speech the way we do. But it also tells you a lot

about these political organizations that just tend to line up with their side of the aisle over and over and over again. This is not a coincidence. Don't leave me now. We got more coming up in 60 seconds. Take a look at what happened to Tara Reid, speaking of what the establishment can do. They dug so far into her past, embarrassed her or tried to with her bankruptcies.

So she doesn't have a lot of money. If you have ever had a period where you don't have a lot of money, it's hard to pay your bills on time and you can get really bad credit and you might even have to declare bankruptcy. I used to have terrible credit. I have family members who have been facing bankruptcy over the course of my, you know, 30 plus years as a grownup. Um, it happens. Doesn't mean you're a liar or a bad person tried to make her sound like she didn't graduate from school. And, uh, Ryan Grim of the intercept has done very good reporting on what actually happened there. Of course, the mainstream media will never touch it. But I mean, what? Then you wonder, like, why? Why wouldn't Lindsay Boylan come right forward? Well, what? You know, it's a quote, a line from a great movie.

That could be my head in a basket, right? It's true. Why would you? you know i i thought one of the one of the really powerful parts of the cuomo report was from this uh state trooper and you know she's talking about first of all you know it wasn't just that he sexually harassed her he seemingly very clearly identified her as someone he found attractive and then bent the rules said she she normally needed i think it was three years of experience she only had to bent the rules so she could be on his personal detail. And, you know, did all sorts of minor things here and there. I think she had referred to it as grooming as they went through this process. But at one point, he kisses her on the lips.

And another officer sees this happen and comes over and says to her, wow, well, he's never kissed me on the lips before. You know, I don't think he meant anything by it, but I thought about the position it put her in where now she's seen as someone who had the rules bent for her to come on board and for someone who's getting kisses on the lips from the subject of their protection. Here's someone who now thinks her own coworkers see her as a person who's only there because she's hot. She has no value.

She doesn't deserve to be there on the merits. She's only there because of the way she looks. So it puts her in an impossible position. Can I add to that, Stu? The added horror that you have of maybe that is the reason. Right? The woman actually coming to the realization, holy shit. But the added horror that you have of maybe that is the reason. Right. Like the woman actually coming to the realization, holy shit, this actually never was about my skill. Yeah.

And then what do you do? Right. What do you do with that information? You know, I mean, it's impossible. It's an impossible situation. And to put someone who's, you know, who's supposed to be protecting your life and risking their life to protect yours in a spot like that is it's unforgivable, unforgivable. And I you read that report and you say to yourself unforgivable about a thousand times. And good riddance. I don't shed one tear for him. No,

I don't know anything about this lieutenant governor other than I think she's also a centrist, which is good because I still live in New York and I don't want some far left person coming in. We've never had a female governor, so that'll be kind of interesting. It's some divine right order there ousting him and he gets replaced by a woman, though it didn't have to happen. But I'm totally fine with it. Last question. What do you think happens to Andrew Cuomo? Because I mentioned this to Janice, but The Daily, you know, the newscast, the podcast, The Daily was saying he could very well come back.

There could there could yet be a future for Andrew Cuomo in politics. You know, you can never brush something like that off, I guess. You know, he he wants it. I can tell you the reason he resigned was because he sees some sort of future, whether it's some influential funding mechanism that gets his policies through and his friends into places and of prominence in the future. I mean, he's not going to go away. He's going to try to do something. He he he lives for this, Megan. He lives for this power. It's you know, it's all he cares about. All he wanted was a fourth term as governor and could be daddy. Oh, yeah. He wanted to be daddy. And I'm very happy he will. He actually came short of daddy. I did not even finish his third term. Of course, that's assuming,

by the way, he actually leaves. We should point out. I know he's got two more weeks to Colbert was saying what's with the 14 days? Like he gave himself two weeks notice on his own risk. You don't need that for yourself. But can I just add one other thing to this? I spoke with somebody in the know who spoke with Andrew Cuomo after the Tish James report broke. And this person was telling me that he was not going to resign. He was totally dug in, even though people around him were saying, you got to go. He was like, no way if I resign, it's going to make me seem guilty. And I'm not guilty. Right. He was maintaining. But I think I will, I will surmise

that what happened was somebody smart sat him down and said, you could still have a future, be it in politics, be it a law firm, what have you, what you don't want is that state trooper getting on the stand at an impeachment trial and telling her story and the American people seeing her firsthand, hearing her, seeing the trooper who backs up her story, seeing executive assistant number one, and then you get up there, your lawyer and cross examines that young woman, tries to tear holes in the story. You don't want that. That you can't come back from. So just leave now while it's still cultural, generational. I didn't mean anything by it. And that that excuse in particular is so infuriating. He's acting as if I mean, what when when do people think he got into office like he wasn't like Gladys from the Steno pool just came by and I gave her a little goose on the rear end like that he came into the office in 2010 what what era are you talking about

here i i never in a point where i've been like never at a point this isn't mad men here i mean i don't i never at a point uh that i been alive. Do I remember any of that type of activity being appropriate or accepted or justified? It's you know, when it's happened, thankfully, it's been called out more recently and we've come a long way. Thank God in that in that stance. But he acts as if he's you know, he's acting in another era that no one is familiar with. He's 63 years old. I mean, I don't know. Is that an average age of a governor? I would say. And I don't think we have that many other reports like this around the country. I hope Andy McCarthy was on the show last week saying I'm one year younger than him. And I can

tell you this was never OK. And he blames like the Italian thing. Well, let me tell you, my pop up was 100 percent Italian off the boat from Italy, born in 1907. And he ran a little boatyard in just north of New York City and had a lot of women running around. They had there was a little burger stand and people who helped the guys with the boat. Never once pop up was not touching the women's bottoms, reaching up the blouses and touching their breasts. And the only one he kissed was Nana. So it's not generational because he was a lot older than Andrew Cuomo. Yeah. And he was one of these guys that always brought up like, I don't like these Italian stereotypes. And now he's like, well, groping is pretty much Italian culture. Sorry. Incredible. Viva Italia.

That was amazing. I'm going to be laughing for a while about Gladys from the standout pool. That was perfect, Stu. So good to talk to you. Thanks so much for having me on. Do not miss Friday's show. So happy and excited to be bringing you Heather MacDonald. She's so brilliant and she's got all of her facts.

I've read everything she's written and this is well, well worth your time. If you don't know Heather, you're welcome. If you do, you're welcome. And we'll talk Friday. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear. The Megyn Kelly Show is a Devil May Care media production in collaboration with Red Seat Ventures.