A video of Governor Andrew Cuomo urging a female journalist to “eat the whole sausage” at the 2016 New York State Fair has resurfaced on social media.
Cuomo asked the journalist to eat the whole sausage
The New York Governor is already facing rising sexual misconduct allegations from two female aides.
In the video footage that journalist Matt Binder shared, Cuomo was heard challenging News 12 Westchester’s Beth Cefalu to eat an entire Gianelli sausage sandwich. While his daughter Michaela sat quietly next to him.
just thinking back to that time NY Governor Andrew Cuomo hounded a local news reporter to "eat the whole sausage" pic.twitter.com/EyNxFavOyG
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) February 28, 2021
‘I want to see you eat the whole sausage,’ Cuomo said to Cefalu, who was recording the interaction.
‘I don’t know if I should eat the whole sausage in front of you, but I’m definitely going to eat it,’ Cefalu replied.
Cuomo then invited Cefalu to sit at his table and snapped a selfie with her. Cefalu held up her plate and said: ‘There’s too much sausage in that picture,’ while others around the table laughed.
They both then joked about how difficult it is to eat on camera, with Cuomo saying there is a course governors take in how to do it.
As the video resurfaced on Twitter on Sunday, users quickly criticized Cuomo for his “creepy” and “cringe” interaction with the female journalist given the recent sexual harassment allegations. Mr. Cuomo is under strict scrutiny after two women have made allegations of sexual misbehavior against him.
Users strongly criticized Cuomo
One user wrote, “It’s almost like he’s sexually harassing her in front of everybody and they’re just okay with it.’
Another said that his daughter looked so uncomfortable and a third user commented when creepy met cringe.
Whereas, others suggested the slamming had been overelaborate. One Twitter user wrote: ‘My God how dare they do this perverse activity of eating sausage in public. Just kidding. Eat on gov, eat on.’
Another user asked that how you could possibly read into that when Cuomo was introducing his daughter Michaela Cuomo there. One more user said that it’s gibberish mixing up with actual allegations that water down the whole thing.
As the video went viral, the reporter herself spoke in Gov. Cuomo’s defense Monday morning. “I was not pressured/harassed this is two people enjoying the one event – the NYS fair – that gives them a little more freedom to be informal,” Cefalu said on Twitter.
The footage recirculated as Cuomo tried to elaborate allegations of sexual harassment as “jokes” that were misapprehended as “unwanted flirtation.”
However, the Governor has not responded to the video, which according to critics is in Cuomo’s history of making inappropriate comments, Fox News reported.
