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Who is Karen Hinton? Andrew Cuomo ex-aide backs Lindsey Boylan, calls him a 'bully who wants total control'

'In Cuomo's world—he would never admit this even to himself—working for him is like a 1950s version of marriage,' Hinton wrote
UPDATED FEB 25, 2021
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was also accused of sexual harassment by Lindsey Boylan (Getty Images)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was also accused of sexual harassment by Lindsey Boylan (Getty Images)

Karen Hinton, an ex-aide of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, wrote a scathing op-ed on Wednesday, February 24, on New York Daily News where she slammed NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo for their treatment of female staffers, corroborating the "bullying" claims made by former Cuomo aide Lindsey Boylan, who accused the governor of sexually harassing her. 

Hinton blasted both the politicians in the op-ed entitled “How to counter penis politics,” which painted Cuomo as a 1950s patriarch and de Blasio as a hypocrite who privately employed a “hectoring, inflexible approach that bordered on sanctimony.”

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"[Cuomo had] given me a job in 1995 and then worked to undermine me in it. Day to day, he made me feel as if I were no good at my job and thus totally dependent on him to keep it. In Cuomo's world—he would never admit this even to himself—working for him is like a 1950s version of marriage," Hinton wrote in the op-ed. “He made me feel as if I were no good at my job and thus totally dependent on him to keep it. He always, always, always comes first. Everyone and everything else — your actual spouse, your children, your own career goals — is secondary. Your focus 24 hours a day is on him. Escaping Cuomo is tough because he has to exercise total control."

New York Gov Andrew Cuomo waves after giving a daily coronavirus press conference at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being turned into a hospital to help fight coronavirus cases on March 27, 2020, in New York City. (Getty Images)

Hinton also said Cuomo belittled her previous experience working for Mike Espy, who later became a Democratic Mississippi congressman. "He told me I had only worked for a 'Black man from a small town in Mississippi' and, therefore, wasn't qualified to lead the public affairs office for him," she wrote. "The Black man from a small town was Mike Espy, who became the first Black congressman from Mississippi since Reconstruction. But that was immaterial to Cuomo, who needed complete control."

About de Blasio she said, “Although the mayor preached a philosophy of egalitarianism, the workplace was pretty much like any other male-dominated environment I’ve been in: Women were interrupted more often and listened to less, whether they were a commissioner or a schedule. Discussions with staff were marked by condescension, leaving the female staffers feeling especially marginalized. It made for an uncomfortable work environment.”

Who is Karen Hinton?

Karen Hinton, who served on the press teams of both de Blasio and Cuomo. She worked for de Blasio’s former press secretary and wrote of working for Cuomo in 1995 when he was the federal housing secretary for the Clinton administration. 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a food shelf organized by The Campaign Against Hunger in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn on April 14, 2020, in New York City. (Getty Images)

De Blasio held up his wife, Chirlane McCray, as evidence of his women’s-rights bona fides and then turned to the makeup of his administration. “I have not seen the piece. I’ll only talk about the history of this administration,” said de Blasio. “From the very beginning, the leadership of this administration has been a majority of women and continues to be. My No. 1 adviser, confidant, partner in everything — as everyone knows — is Chirlane. My longest-serving aide, the person I have depended on, working so closely with now for over a decade or more, [is] Emma Wolfe. And four out of six deputy mayors are women.”

Cuomo's office has not responded to the allegations made by Hinton. 

Lindsey Boylan's accusations

Lindsey Boylan, a former aide of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, claimed that he had sexually harassed her for years in a series of tweets. On Wednesday, February 24, Boylan published an essay titled ‘My story of working with Governor Cuomo’ on Medium, detailing her history with the Democratic governor.

Boylan, who worked for the governor from 2015 to 2018, in her 1,700-plus-word essay also shared screenshots of government emails, including one in which Stephanie Benton, Director of the Governor’s Offices, allegedly passed along a message from him that referenced a rumored former girlfriend to show she was his type.

She said, “After my tweets about the Governor in December, two women reached out to me with their own experiences. One described how she lived in constant fear, scared of what would happen to her if she rejected the Governor’s advances. The other said she was instructed by the Governor to warn staff members who upset him that their jobs could be at risk. Both told me they are too afraid to speak out.”

“Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected. His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation that he liked you, that you must be doing something right. He used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences,” wrote Boylan.

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