A former aide to the Cuomo administration, Charlotte Bennett has called him a “textbook abuser” and said that she felt deeply uncomfortable by the question the New York Governor asked her. 

In an interview with CBS Evening News, Bennett who is the second woman to go public with her sexual misconduct allegations against Cuomo said, “I thought, he’s trying to sleep with me. The governor is trying to sleep with me. And I’m deeply uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible.”

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Bennett first shared her story in an interview with the New York Times last week, as per media reports. 

The exchange took place in June 2020 when Charlotte was in Cuomo’s office taking a dictation, reports CNN. 

The Governor told Bennett that he was lonely and wanted a girlfriend. She had previously told him that she was a survivor of sexual assault. 

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“He asked if I had trouble enjoying being with someone because of my trauma,” Charlotte said while re-telling the incident. 

According to the 25-year-old, the Governor also asked her if age difference mattered to her in a relationship and said that “he was fine with anyone over 22.”

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Talking about how this exchange made her feel, Charlotte said she felt ashamed. “I feel like people put the onus on the woman to shut that conversation down. And by answering, I was somehow engaging in that or enabling it, when in fact I was just terrified,” she explained. 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women.

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In response to the allegations by Bennett, Cuomo has said he believes he had been acting as a mentor and said he “never made advances toward Ms Bennett, nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate.”

“I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it. I feel awful about it, and frankly, I am embarrassed by it, and that’s not easy to say but that’s the truth,” Governor Cuomo said.

In her interview with CBS, Bennett said, “It’s not an apology. It’s not an issue of my feelings. It’s an issue of his actions. The fact is that he was sexually harassing me and he has not apologized for sexually harassing me. And he can’t even use my name.”

Calling him a textbook abuser, Bennett said she does not accept the Governor’s apology. 

“He is a textbook abuser. He lets his temper and his anger rule the office, but he was very sweet to me for a year in the hopes that maybe one day, when he came onto me, I would think that we were friends or it was appropriate or that it was OK,” Bennett said.