If it isn’t abundantly clear by now, Andrew Cuomo is a bully, a sleaze, and a grade-A jerk.

In a story cycle that has become all too common ever since Democrats realized that Cuomo was a liability they could now afford to dump, an eighth woman has come forward with her story about Andrew Cuomo harassing her. However, what makes this woman different is that she is a current aide in the Cuomo administration who came forward and was willing to be named.

#BREAKING – An 8th Cuomo accuser steps forward.

Alyssa McGrath said Cuomo told a victim not to tell McGrath about the sexual assault.

On an occasion when McGrath was herself harassed she caught the Gov staring. "He was blatantly looking down my shirt.”https://t.co/JKuHWR7j10

— Candice Giove (@candicegiove) March 19, 2021

In the latest allegation against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Alyssa McGrath, an employee of the governor’s office, described a series of unsettling interactions with the governor, telling The New York Times that Mr. Cuomo would ogle her body, remark on her looks, and make suggestive comments to her and another executive aide.”

Ms. McGrath, 33, is the first current aide in Mr. Cuomo’s office to speak publicly about allegations of harassment inside the Capitol. Her account of casual sexual innuendo echoes other stories that have emerged in recent weeks about a demeaning office culture, particularly for young women who worked closely with the governor.”

The most serious accusation against the governor was made by another current aide who has accused Mr. Cuomo of groping her breast in the Executive Mansion. Ms. McGrath said that the aide described the encounter in detail to her after it was made public in a report in The Times Union of Albany last week.”

“She froze when he started doing that stuff to her,” Ms. McGrath said, adding, “But who are you going to tell?”

She added that the co-worker, who has not been publicly identified, told her that the governor had asked her not to talk about the alleged incident, knowing that the two women regularly spoke and texted about their interactions with Mr. Cuomo.”

“He told her specifically not to tell me,” Ms. McGrath said.”

If this abuse of power isn’t enough for the day, we also learned that Andrew Cuomo has little shame in threatening to slander people with one of the most damaging accusations possible.

You can read the initial story about Cuomo's bullying style, by @jessemckinley and @luisferre, here. https://t.co/OVZjbU8oJc pic.twitter.com/rY5LDqME0U

— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 19, 2021

What in the actual hell. Take a bow, media – THIS was your champion against the Bad Orange Man. THIS is the guy whose ass you kissed repeatedly for months on end. And when conservative and alternative media began covering the nursing home deaths, you turned a blind eye as the Cuomo Brothers Comedy Show began airing regularly on CNN. It only took how many months for media critic Erik Wemple of the Washington Post to actually bring this up on CNN itself?

Meanwhile, the real story is still the numbers of deaths in nursing homes that were covered up by Cuomo and his aides, along with the questions about the deaths in disability group homes. To that end, the Department of Justice has been talking with the Cuomo aides who doctored and deleted the numbers from the August 2020 report.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have contacted lawyers for Mr. Cuomo’s aides, interviewed senior officials from the state Health Department and subpoenaed Mr. Cuomo’s office for documents related to the disclosure of data last year, the people said.”

The interviews have included questions about information New York State submitted last year to the Justice Department, which had asked the state for data on Covid-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes, according to the people. False statements in such a submission could constitute a crime.”

The families of the dead want answers. We know what has been admitted already, especially by Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa – the actual number of dead in the New York nursing homes was left out of the report in order to make things look better after the disasterous order to return COVID-positive patients back to their care facilities, while the facilities themselves got immunity and Cuomo held press conference after press conference and got a book deal. Was it a legal crime to order COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes? No, but it was a moral travesty. Was giving nursing home operators immunity, while they donated money to Cuomo’s campaign, illegal? The FBI is looking into that as well. The sexual harassment allegations are the excuse that Democrats are using to write Cuomo off. The real scandal is the number of elderly and disabled dead from COVID, thanks to his order, and the cover-up that the top aides carried out. Did they carry it out on Cuomo’s orders, or did they just know that given the boss’s reputation, you just don’t cross the boss?

The former would most definitely be an obstruction charge for Cuomo himself. I have a feeling that he may be able to dodge that, simply on the grounds that he is, by multiple accounts, a arrogant and demeaning jackass who is known to bully others, both implicitly and explicitly, to get what he wants. What kind of atmosphere must exist in his office? The kind that has top aides making sure that nothing embarrasses the boss, who is on the verge of a book deal about his awesome leadership skillz?

Given the potential seriousness of the investigation, we might be finding out soon if Cuomo’s aides fear his retaliation more than a federal charge.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click