Late Night

John Oliver Brutally Mocks Andrew Cuomo’s Weird Kissing Video

BAFFLING

HBO

The “Last Week Tonight” host couldn’t believe the New York governor tried to defend himself against sexual harassment allegations by showing a photo montage of him kissing people.

Marlow Stern

Senior Entertainment Editor

On Sunday night, John Oliver kicked off the latest episode of Last Week Tonight by poking fun at Tucker Carlson’s fascism tour in Hungary before addressing the recent revelations about Andrew Cuomo. The New York governor not only covered up the state’s COVID-19 nursing home deaths (which he is in large part responsible for by ordering those with COVID-19 back into nursing homes) and released a book during the ongoing pandemic about how well he was handling it but also has been found to have sexually harassed multiple women—including former staffers. (Cuomo has denied the allegations.)

“New York’s AG released a devastating report into allegations of sexual harassment by Andrew Cuomo—which incredibly, he’s trying to ride out, issuing a video in which he tried to deny or downplay the accusations,” said Oliver.

    The comic then cut to an outrageous video Cuomo released at a press conference of him embracing and kissing a number of people—many of whom were celebrities, including Bill Clinton and Robert De Niro.

    “Apparently, his strategy for literally any crisis is: Put out a PowerPoint. And that’s it.”

    “OK, but that’s not what this is about!” exclaimed Oliver. “And it’s frankly incredible that Cuomo thought releasing an irrelevant montage of photos would somehow exonerate him. Apparently, his strategy for literally any crisis is: Put out a PowerPoint. And that’s it.”

    New York Attorney General Letitia James oversaw the inquiry into Cuomo that “spanned five months and involved 179 witness interviews as well as a review of thousands of documents,” with investigators finding that “sexual harassment was ‘part of a pattern’ and that Cuomo ‘routinely’ interacted with women in a way the women found humiliating,” reported The Daily Beast.

    “On one occasion in an elevator, the Governor ran his finger down the center of Trooper #1’s back from the top of her neck down the center of her spine, while saying, ‘hey you,’” the 168-page report states. “On another occasion, the Governor asked Trooper #1 why she would want to get married, noting that ‘it always ends in divorce, and you lose money, and your sex drive goes down.’”