A former top aide for ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo said her former boss is unfit to lead NYC and predicts “women’s rights” will suffer if he’s elected NYC’s next mayor.
“As a movement, we women haven’t done enough to toughen laws to protect women from such immoral, unethical, and what should be illegal behavior by men in positions of power, such as Cuomo,” said Karen Hinton, who claims Cuomo made unwanted sexual advances towards her in 2000, when he was U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
“This election should be an opportunity to make the case for women’s rights, to give women a strong, powerful voice in City Hall… [New York City] won’t get it if [Mayor Eric] Adams or Cuomo is elected,” she told The Post.
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Hinton said Cuomo will be more “careful” around women if he’s elected mayor, because the three-term governor “learned a few lessons” after resigning in 2021 following a report by state Attorney General Letitia James that found he sexually harassed 11 women, and that some top aides helped undermine his accusers.
But voters — and prospective employees — should beware, she warned.
“Women and men employees should never trust him. He will be very demanding. Nice one day; nasty the next. Your best friend; then your worst enemy,” she insisted.
Hinton, who was not part of the James’ report, stepped forward shortly after it was released and accused Cuomo of sexual harassment before he resigned.
In her 2021 book, “Penis Politics,” Hinton claimed Cuomo talked about lurid sex with his underlings, including salacious things involving his ex-in-laws, the Kennedys — who, like Cuomo, have denied the allegations.
Cuomo has also denied Hinton’s claim that he was physically “aroused” when he allegedly hugged her when she was his HUD press aide.
“He approached me, embraced too tightly, too long, and was aroused,” Hinton previously told The Post. “I felt extremely uncomfortable and actually shocked. Nothing had ever happened that way between the two of us.”
Cuomo has adamantly denied all allegations of sexual harassment and has repeatedly accused Hinton of having a political ax to grind.
Hinton – a Mississippi native who is married to ex-state operations director Howard Glaser — went to work for then-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015 at a time when a political feud between de Blasio and Cuomo was simmering, leaving Cuomo fuming at the time, according to multiple sources and past media reports.
She resigned as de Blasio’s top press aide in 2016, in part because she felt undermined by de Blasio, sources then told The Post.
Comparing the two Democrats she said: “De Blasio, to my knowledge, never made sexual overtures to women — he just didn’t listen to them.”
Hinton said she’s especially interested in this year’s mayoral race – which shows Cuomo ahead in the recent polls – because she still has three daughters who live in NYC.
“New York City may elect a mayor who has been rightfully accused of sexual misconduct by several young women who worked for him in up-close positions,” she claimed.
