Leaked audio proves Gov. Cuomo threatened to compare rival to ‘child rapist’ after originally denying it

Amid the dual scandals of an alleged cover-up of nursing home COVID-19 deaths and multiple allegations of sexual harassment, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has also come under fire for his tendency to berate and bully any and all who stand in his way.

Leaked audio has confirmed that Cuomo once threatened to publicly compare supporters of a rival to a “child rapist,” which was an instance of alleged bullying that had been firmly denied by the governor when the story was initially reported in February, according to the Daily Mail.

In addition to exposing the three-term New York governor as a bully and a liar, the remark also highlights his rather contemptible view of Republicans, as they were, in essence, the other half of the demeaning “child rapist” comparison.

Drawing comparisons to child rapists

The leaked audio appears to be from a phone call that occurred during Cuomo’s re-election bid in 2018 against Bill Lipton, the head of the far-left progressive Working Families Party in New York.

Lipton and his party backed the candidacy of former “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon in a failed challenge against Cuomo, and while the progressive party was reluctant to endorse Cuomo, it decided to do so after determining that he would be better, overall, than a Republican governor.

According to a recent New York Times podcast, the outlet that obtained the leaked audio recording, Cuomo told Lipton, “If you ever say, ‘Well, he’s better than a Republican’ again, then I’m going to say, ‘You’re better than a child rapist.’ How about that?”

“Governor, I apologize, but I gotta clarify one thing,” Lipton replied. “You’re free to say whatever you want, governor, but I just want to be clear. Our line is going to be that we have differences with you, but our differences with Republicans are far greater.”

Cuomo fired back, “I think you’re better than a child rapist. I just want you to know.”

Has been and still is a bully

The Daily Mail noted that Gov. Cuomo’s office flatly denied the “child rapist” remark was ever made when the story was initially reported by The Times in February. The leaked audio recording seems to prove otherwise.

This is not the first time — and likely not the last — that Cuomo has been called out for his bully nature, as the New York Post reported in February that the governor had an extensive history of using bullying tactics against not only his political enemies and rivals but also his staffers and even his supporters.

One recent example is Cuomo’s alleged threat to politically “destroy” Democratic state Assemblyman Ron Kim after the lawmaker spoke critically of the governor’s disastrously fatal mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic as it related to deaths in the state’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

That’s just a small sample of a much larger list of examples that continues to grow as more and more New Yorkers come forward to share their experiences of being bullied by the governor, now that the bloom is most decidedly off the rose of Cuomo’s political career.

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