General Discussion

or your memory didn't catch all the details.

In any case, her body language should be perfectly clear to anyone. After she removed his hand -- and he responded by grabbing her head -- the top half of her face was frowning, with a frown line between her eyebrows. And she had a nervous, weak smile. But he must have taken that pained look as an invitation because, according to the friend who had witnessed the moment, as she pulled away he kissed her anyway.

Link to tweet

Here is the report from the NYT, which interviewed her and broke the story.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/nyregion/cuomo-harassment-anna-ruch.html?searchResultPosition=1


She recalled Mr. Cuomo moving his hand to the small of her back — exposed in an open-back dress — within moments of their being introduced and shaking hands at the reception.

Ms. Ruch said that touch, on her bare skin, discomfited her. “I promptly removed his hand with my hand, which I would have thought was a clear enough indicator that I was not wanting him to touch me,” she said.

Instead, Ms. Ruch said, Mr. Cuomo called her “aggressive” and placed his hands on her cheeks.

“He said, ‘Can I kiss you?’” Ms. Ruch said. “I felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed when really he is the one who should have been embarrassed.” (A friend captured the exchange in a series of photographs taken on Ms. Ruch’s cellphone.)

Shaken, Ms. Ruch said, she later had to ask a friend if Mr. Cuomo’s lips had made contact with her face as she pulled away. The governor had kissed her cheek, she was told.

“It’s the act of impunity that strikes me,” Ms. Ruch said. “I didn’t have a choice in that matter. I didn’t have a choice in his physical dominance over me at that moment. And that’s what infuriates me. And even with what I could do, removing his hand from my lower back, even doing that was not clear enough.”