With pressure already mounting on Andrew Cuomo to quit his post, another allegation of sexual harassment has been made on the Governor by a former New York capitol beat reporter Jessica Bakeman, who penned a first-person piece for New York Magazine, narrating her tragic experience.

Bakeman, now a reporter at WLRN in Miami, wrote that at 25 when she was covering Cuomo, he often touched her without her consent. 

During a 2014 holiday party, she alleged the governor gripped her tightly as she went to say goodbye for the night.

“He took my hand, as if to shake it, then refused to let go,” Bakeman wrote. “He put his other arm around my back, his hand on my waist, and held me firmly in place while indicating to a photographer he wanted us to pose for a picture.”

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She is the seventh women to allege inappropriate behaviour from Cuomo, who has been called upon to resign from leading Democratic lawmakers.

An investigation into his conduct led by the New York attorney general’s office is already underway.

She alleged that he said, in front of her colleagues, “I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable? I thought we were going steady,” in a moment Bakeman described as humiliating.

Although Bakeman said the incident was one of the most hideous ways Cuomo sexually harassed her, she wrote it wasn’t the only incidents.

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“I never thought the governor wanted to have sex with me. It wasn’t about sex. It was about power,” Bakeman wrote.

“He wanted me to know that I was powerless, that I was small and weak, that I did not deserve what relative power I had: a platform to hold him accountable for his words and actions. He wanted me to know that he could take my dignity away at any moment with an inappropriate comment or a hand on my waist.”

However, Cuomo has rampantly denied the allegations and asked the public and his critics to “wait for the facts,” during a press conference on Friday.

“Women have a right to come forward and be heard,” Cuomo said at the same event.

“I did not do what has been alleged, period.”

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Meanwhile, Bakeman wrote that she feels Cuomo mal-treated both men and women, in her experience, but that he “never let me forget I was a woman.”

“It’s not that Cuomo spares men in his orbit from his trademark bullying and demeaning behaviour. But the way he bullies and demeans women is different,” Bakeman wrote.

“He uses touching and sexual innuendo to stoke fear in us. That is the textbook definition of sexual harassment.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday in a joint statement with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, called for Cuomo to resign in the wake of sexual harassment allegations and his handling of COVID-19 deaths at state nursing homes.