New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is being made the victim of a "witch hunt" through claims of sexual harassment made in a lengthy report from Attorney General Letitia James, according to Newsmax host Greg Kelly while defending the Democrat governor on his program.
"I've been around long enough, and I know stuff that happens and I can see a freaking witch hunt when it happens, and that's what's happening here," Kelly commented during a monologue Tuesday night.
Tuesday, James said the report was written from the findings from a team of special investigators led by former federal prosecutor Joon Kim and attorney Anne Clark, who reviewed tens of thousands of documents and interviewed 179 witnesses.
In their findings, James said the governor allegedly engaged in the "unwanted groping" and kissing of current and former state employees as well as women outside of state government. Cuomo has strongly denied all of the claims but is being faced with demands to resign, including from President Joe Biden.
Kelly said that he's been going through James' report and he's "not buying it," even though there are "a lot of reasons not to like Cuomo."
"I am not a fan anymore, but he's no sexual predator," said Kelly, shifting his comments to complaints that have been made about Biden.
"We've all seen Joe Biden grab and smell and grope people for years and the left elevated him to the presidency," said Kelly, pointing out that James' report is "not a criminal referral" but "just for people to read to the media."
Kelly said that the "dramatics aside," Cuomo is accused of calling "somebody lovely at a party," of kissing someone on the cheek at an office party, putting his hand around a woman's waist for a picture, and "it goes on like this."
He added that he thinks James is "just overdoing it" with her report.
"This is the woman who said she would get (former President Donald) Trump when she was campaigning to be attorney general," said Kelly, before showing a clip of James' comments against Trump. "She didn't need to see any evidence. She didn't need to see any complaints. She just told everybody she was going to get him."
Kelly also outlined some of the claims in the report, including one from a woman who said she was offended by Cuomo calling her "sweetheart" or "darling" and by his having kissed her on the cheek during a celebration over the passage of a state budget.
"People say hello by kissing," said Kelly. "You've seen it a million times ... did everybody want to be kissed? Probably not. But it just kind of happens. Maybe it shouldn't anymore. But for centuries that's the way it worked."
He also mentioned the comments made by a female state trooper who "testified that the governor asked to kiss her. Can I kiss you? Well, he is single. By the way, they do work together. I'm not saying it's appropriate, but he asked."
Cuomo, while denying the claims, said he welcomes the opportunity for a review by a judge and jury because "this just did not happen," and Kelly said he believes him.
"It would be very easy for me to jump on the bandwagon right now and say (he is a) bad guy, so he had it coming to him," said Kelly. "He was anti-(Brett) Kavanaugh, by the way, another man who was treated horrifically. I'm not going to do it because I believe him."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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