Gov. Andrew Cuomo once compared himself to the violent son in The Godfather, The New York Times reports. As he battles six different sexual misconduct accusations, a former aide told the Times about an instance in 2006 when Cuomo seemed to be proud of how uncomfortable he could make people. “I loom over that table... In their minds, I’m Sonny Corleone, and I’m capable of anything,” he reportedly told the aide. Years later, in 2019, his younger brother, Chris, made headlines after “losing his cool” when somebody called him “Fredo,” an allusion to the weak, cowardly brother in The Godfather. A Cuomo spokesman denied the governor had ever made a Godfather reference, calling it “an anti-Italian, bigoted, false, defamatory statement.”

Another former staffer said that Cuomo once joked to a male official, “You’d be a good-looking tranny...if you get a good set of tits.” Cuomo’s spokesman was adamant that he “would never make a comment so vile” and that “no one has done more to advance the rights of transgender New Yorkers than Governor Cuomo.”