美国国家公共电台 NPR 瞒报养老院疫情后又被揭性骚扰 纽约州长"抗疫英雄"人设崩塌(在线收听

Two women, former aides to New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, are accusing him of workplace harassment. He has asked for an independent investigation into those allegations. Cuomo is taking heat from a lot of sides these days. He's under pressure about his management style and also how he's handled the pandemic in New York. Karen DeWitt is a reporter with New York State Public Radio and has been following this one. Good morning, Karen.

纽约州长安德鲁·科莫被两位前女助手指控在工作场所骚扰。他已要求对这些指控进行独立调查。最近,库科饱受多方指责。他因管理风格及应对纽约州新冠肺炎的方式而承受压力。凯伦·德威特是纽约州公共广播电台的记者,他一直在关注这起事件。早上好,凯伦。

KAREN DEWITT, BYLINE: Good morning.

凯伦·德威特连线:早上好。

KING: Tell me about Charlotte Bennett, the second woman who came forward.

金:请介绍一下第二位出面指控的女性夏洛特·班内特。

DEWITT: Well, she's 25. She worked as an executive assistant and health policy adviser to the governor. Bennett's account was first reported in The New York Times. She says last spring, during the height of the pandemic in New York, the governor made several unwelcome advances towards her. She said the governor, who's single and 63 years old, also asked her whether she would consider sleeping with older men. Now, Bennett found that talk pretty unsettling. She did complain about the incident at the time to two female supervisors. They agreed to place her in a new job at the opposite end of the state Capitol from where the governor's office is located. She later left that job.

德威特:她今年25岁。曾担任州长的执行助理和卫生政策顾问。班内特的叙述最早由《纽约时报》报道。她表示,去年春天,在纽约新冠疫情的高峰期,州长对她进行了多次令人讨厌的搭讪。她说,现年63岁且单身的州长还问过她是否会考虑和年长的男人上床。那番话令班内特感觉相当不安。她当时确实向两名女性主管投诉了这一事件。她们同意在州长办公室所在的州议会大厦的对面给她安排一份新工作。她后来辞去了那份工作。

KING: And the first woman to come forward, Lindsey Boylan, what does she say?

金:林赛·伊兰是第一个出面指控的女性,她说了什么?

DEWITT: Well, Boylan is another former aide. She accused the governor of kissing her without her permission during another private meeting in the governor's office and of asking her during a business trip on his private plane whether she wanted to play strip poker with him.

德威特:博伊兰也是州长的前助手。她指控称,在州长办公室进行的另一场私人会议上,州长曾未经同意就亲吻她,甚至还在乘坐私人飞机出差时询问她是否想和他玩“脱衣扑克”。

KING: Has Cuomo responded?

金:科莫有回应吗?

DEWITT: Well, yeah, he's denying that he did anything wrong. But he did issue a lengthy statement on Sunday evening, saying that while he never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm, he admits that he's teased people who he works with about their personal lives and relationships. And the governor in his statement goes on to say that he now understands that some of the things he said were misinterpreted as unwanted flirtation and that he's truly sorry about that. But he says he never inappropriately propositioned or touched anyone.

德威特:有,他否认有错误行为。但他在周日晚上发表了一份冗长的声明,称虽然他从未有意冒犯任何人或造成任何伤害,但他承认他有拿与其合作的人的个人生活和情感开玩笑。州长在声明中还提到,他现在明白了,他说的一些话被误解为不必要的调情,他对此感到非常抱歉。但他称自已从未不当地向任何人提出过下流的要求或触碰过任何人。

KING: Cuomo often defends himself and his supporters defend him by saying, you know, it's New York politics. It's rough and tumble. It's just different here. What are other state lawmakers saying about these allegations?

金:科莫及其支持者为他辩护时常说,这是纽约政治。混乱且动荡。这里就是与众不同。其他州的议员对这些指控有何看法?

DEWITT: Well, they don't completely agree with that. Nearly every top Democrat and Republican officeholder, state and federal, say the allegations need to be taken very seriously. They're calling for an independent investigation. Now, the state's attorney general, Letitia James, she wanted immediately to appoint a special investigator with full subpoena powers. After initial attempts by Cuomo to conduct a less formal investigation, the governor finally agreed late last night. He says he and his staff will now cooperate fully with the attorney general.

德威特:他们不完全同意这种说法。无论是州层面还是联邦层面,几乎所有民主党高层和共和党官员都认为,这些指控需要非常认真地对待。他们要求进行独立调查。纽约州检察长莱蒂娅·詹姆斯表示,她希望立即任命一名具有充分传票权力的特别调查员。科莫一开始曾试图进行不太正式的调查,而昨晚,州长终于同意进行正式调查。他表示,他和他的工作人员现在将全面配合纽约州检察长。

KING: OK, now, in the meantime, he is also under pressure for not being honest with the public about how many people died of COVID-19 in nursing homes in the state.

金:同时,他还面临着其他压力,因为他未诚实地公众披露纽约州养老院的新冠肺炎死亡人数。

DEWITT: That's right. And it was the attorney general who issued a report in late January that found the governor's administration had undercounted the nursing home deaths by 50% because he didn't release the number of deaths of residents who became sick with COVID, were transferred to a hospital and passed away there. That set off a firestorm of criticism. Now he's under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office of Eastern New York. And remember, this was the governor who became sort of a folk hero for his widely watched daily briefings during the height of the pandemic in New York last spring, where he calmly offered facts and science. He told stories about his family. He even won an Emmy.

德威特:没错。而这个问题就是纽约州检察长在1月底发布报告时揭露的,报告发现州长领导的政府隐瞒养老院一半的死亡人数,因为他没有公布被转移到医院并在那里去世的养老院新冠肺炎病例。这引发了外界的猛烈抨击。现在他正在接受纽约东区的联邦检察官办公室的调查。记住,去年春天纽约疫情高峰期间,这位州长因备受关注的每日例行发布会而成为民间英雄,因为他会平静地提供事实和科学。他也会谈论自已家的情况。他甚至因此赢得了艾美奖。

KING: And now are there real questions about his political future?

金:现在他的政治前途有没有面临真正的问题?

DEWITT: Well, you know, there are. Republicans — they're in the minority party in the legislature — and even a few Democrats are calling for him to resign or even to be impeached. If Cuomo left, he wouldn't be the first governor in recent state history to resign over a sex scandal. Former Governor Eliot Spitzer had to leave office in 2007 after he was outed for patronizing prostitutes. If the governor can stay, he'll be severely weakened. For a year now, he's had extraordinary emergency powers under the pandemic. He can close down and open businesses and schools, decide who gets the vaccine and when. It's likely that the legislature is going to move to curb those powers in the coming days.

德威特:有。共和党现在是立法机关中的少数党,共和党人、甚至还有一些民主党人都呼吁他辞职,甚至要求弹劾他。如果科莫辞职,他并不会是纽约州最近的历史上首个因性丑闻而辞职的州长。前州长艾略特·斯皮策因嫖娼被罢黜,不得不于2007年离任。如果州长能留下来,他的权力也会被严重削弱。一年以来,他在疫情期间拥有特别紧急处置权。他可以关闭和开放企业和学校,决定疫苗接种的人群以及何时接种。立法机关很可能在未来几天内采取行动来遏制这些权力。

KING: Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio. Karen, thanks for your reporting. We appreciate it.

金:以上是纽约州公共广播电台的记者凯伦·德威特带来的报道。凯伦,非常感谢你。谢谢。

DEWITT: You're welcome.

德威特:不客气。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/2021/522337.html