Sexual Misconduct Is Not a Political Issue and Party Bias Needs to Stop Making it One

Former New York Gov. Cuomo pictured in 2014. Source: Diana Robinson 2014, Flickr.

After sexual harassment accusations against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo surfaced in March, the publication of a report by the Attorney General Letitia James' office on Aug. 3 brought the investigation to a climax. The report found that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, prompting politicians from both parties to rightfully call for his resignation, or if he failed to do so, his impeachment. 

Few politicians contest Cuomo’s decision to resign, but in pushing for his termination, Republicans enacted a double standard, as most of the party failed to denounce former President Donald Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after sexual harassment and assault accusations emerged. 

In Oct. 2016, following the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump dismissed forcing himself onto women as “locker room talk,” 23 women came forward with credible accusations of sexual misconduct against Trump, all of which should have cost him the presidency.

Instead, only 19% of Republicans, as opposed to 44% of Democrats, thought the allegations disqualified Trump from office, according to a YouGov poll from 2016. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) was one of dozens of Republicans that defended Trump, even after the tape’s release, stating that, “Quite honestly, as somebody who had a front-row seat to the Kavanaugh hearings, we’ve seen allegations that were false. We’ll let the facts go where they are, but I take [Trump’s] statement at face value.”

Despite the substantive evidence against Trump, his supporters never wavered, as evidenced by his election 26 days later. A similar situation happened in 2018, when Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court faced litigation after three women publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, offered corroborated testimony that Kavanugh assaulted her when they attended high school in the 1980s. Despite medical records confirming the details of her accusation, the Trump administration, in addition to the majority of Republicans, continued to push Kavanuagh’s nomination forward. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) even used his time to question Kavanaugh during the trial to express his own outrage that the trial ever occured. 

“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020,” Graham accused Democrats of. “To my Republican colleagues, if you vote ‘no’, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing that I have seen in my time in politics.”

Graham’s opinion was not an isolated one, as a 2018 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that 54% of Republicans said that the Senate should vote to confirm Kavanaugh, regardless of whether Ford’s allegations against him proved true. In both cases, Republicans set the dangerous precedent that sexual harassment and assault accusations are not worthy of debarring the accused from political office – a harmful ideal that mocks the serious nature of these incidents and their need for consideration, especially in a position requiring morals, while also perpetuating the use of status, especially in politics, to avoid punishment. 

By trying to separate the inappropriate actions of Trump and Kavanuagh from their duties as leaders, Republicans have disrespected the aboves’ victims, established the notion that this behavior is acceptable only among their party and also raised the question of frequency regarding sexual harassment and assault in politics. According to a 2018 Georgetown Law report, women have reported at least 138 appointed and/or elected government officials for sexual harassment, assault, misconduct or violence since the 2016 election. If this many reports occurred in two years, how many incidents have occurred even since then?

In his resignation address, Cuomo attributed this increase in recent reports, specifically those pertaining to him, to a culture shift, stating that he has “never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.”

What Cuomo failed to realize is that non-consensual speech, touch or behavior has never been tolerated, the only change being that women have increasingly begun to hold their attackers accountable. In addition, a double standard has emerged, as Republicans have denounced Cuomo yet failed to do so with their own party. Trump, accused of the aforementioned sexual assault himself, even condemned Cuomo.

“Cuomo’s got real problems,” Trump said at a New York State Republican Party fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Course in Briarcliff on August 5th. 

As Trump failed to hold himself responsible for his own sexual misconduct accusations, he demonstrated the hypocrisy that party bias allows for in believing victim allegations. A 2021 study by Syracuse University found that this phenomenon worsens with increasing political polarization.  

“The more Republicans and Democrats strongly identified with their party, the more likely they were to agree, or at least not strongly disagree, with these sexual assault myths” assistant professor and co-autor Rebecca Ortiz said about the study. “As predicted, these sexual assault myth attitudes were significantly higher among Republicans than Democrats and among men than women. We also found that our participants aligned more closely by party than gender, such that Republican women more closely aligned with Republican men and Democratic men with Democratic women.”

This study confirmed that the actions of Republicans who only criticized members of the opposite party, such as Cuomo, highlight the overarching issue of political bias in believing sexual misconduct reports. But, Republicans were not the only hypocrites in Cuomo’s case. As stated by the Associated Press, only 86 out of 150 Democrats in the New York assembly thought that impeachment should occur if Cuomo did not resign. While this majority would have been enough to catalyze an impeachment trial, there is no reason all Democrats did not favor Cuomo’s removal from office. Especially considering that the release of Trump’s Access Hollywood tape barely affected Democrats’ perception of him – as it was already so low – and 47 out of 48 Democratic Senators voted against Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court following the publicized trial and investigation.

Partisanship in sexual misconduct cases is not new however. In 2020, after former Senate Aide Tara Reade accused President Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, top Democrats including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who routinely advocates for survivors of sexual assault, defended him.

“[Reade] has come forward, she has spoken, and they have done an investigation in several outlets. Those investigations, Vice President Biden has called for himself. Vice President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations and I support Vice President Biden,” Gillibrand said, her statement clearly violating her stance on believing survivors and demonstrating clear prejudice.

The double standards seen in Cuomo’s case are problematic, but clearly not new. Inconsistencies on both sides in which Republicans have cherry-picked their condemnation of sexual misconduct for political gain and Democrats have wavered on their stance regarding sexual misconduct when faced with allegations against their own party member, have only harmed victims themselves, not the politicians, as seen by Trump and Biden’s presidency and Kavanaugh’s spot on the Supreme Court. 

Coming forward as a victim is often traumatic, let alone when the attacker is someone with power and status, which makes Cuomo’s actions even more manipulative and disgusting. The New York Times reported that more than 35 people who worked in Cuomo’s office had described the environment as “deeply chaotic, unprofessional and toxic, especially for young women,” which reveals the circumstances under which Cuomo’s harassment continued to thrive. While Cuomo’s resignation was necessary for the safety of women and the right decision as a leader, it also began the process of providing victims with closure. However, it was only the first step to holding political figures accountable for sexual misconduct and depoliticizing the nature of these allegations. Sexual discrimination, harassment and assault are not political issues – they are issues of basic human morals and constitute punishment regardless of political affiliation.