he admit s that these allegatios or not, whether he contests them, he s saying he is. he saw no way forward. with the governor calling for his resignation, other prominent new york officials calling for his resignation, the path was clear. jane baker and ronan farrow, known for his reporting on harvey weinstein. since we re talking about the governor calling, asking him to resign, laura, we ll get to the legal part of this in a moment. politically, how might this play out? it moved quickly. governor cuomo came out, a lot of it had to do with the fact it s election season. he came out extremely, extrem y ly quickly, followed by senator gillibrand, a hero for many individuals during the me too era. this slightly different because of the way it was described with such great detail in the new yorker story. this type of physical abuse and the lack of a denial by the attorney general simply saying
she said i feel a wave of truth coming, purging those who should not be in positions of power. women are rising up and had enough. we must end this cycle of abuse of power and sexual violence. that s the difference involving this story, from all the me too accounts we ve heard, all the allegations against prominent men, it has primarily been about sexual assault and sexual harassment. in this case, schneiderman is also accused of abusing his power and acting in violent ways separate from any sexual activity. that s one of the reasons the story stood out, why it s so disgusting to read. these are only allegations made by two women on the record, two other women speaking anonymously. but when it ads up, you can see, it added up in such a damaging way that other prominent new york officials allegedly using the power of his office to retaliate against these women if they move forward. you can t separate the politics from this case of abuse which is we oftentimes want to be able to
as rape in other people s worlds, doesn t mean you didn t commit the other crimes you re accused of including the slapping. also the very important one. there are threat. allegations in the report there were threats made if they yower to go forward, there would be wiretapping on their phones, there would be repercussions in many ways. remember, this is an allegation that many women and men who have contested proceedings against, say, a person in law enforcement, an officer, somebody in the court system, will often feel as though they have no recourse. no one will believe them, and they will be punished in some way, shape or form. imagine that being the top lawyer in new york. but they according to the new yorker they were inspired, they say, by women who had been coming forward z part of the me too movement. brian, i m wondering how much did these two women speaking on the record, how much more credibility does that add to the story? i was really struck by what one of the two w
story and that includes the people around him. and there isn t an authoritative no. let s talk about scott pruitt tonight, because the new york times is reporting tonight that senior white house staff members are encouraging the president to fire scott pruitt, his embattled environmental protection agency chief. now 11 federal investigations that involve him. how can he stay in this job? i mean, he shouldn t be allowed to stay in the job, but i think two things are keeping him in the job. one is, there s been such a historic turnover, such embarrassing turnover, that people don t want to see another person exit too quickly. number two, he s actually doing in a substantive way that s more of. when it comes to regulations, what the president wants. there s a tension, an ethical nightmare, beyond an embarrassment but executing an agenda the president wants and a lot of republicans applaud. i would have you respond but i need to get to this. i want to talk about your show
the reporter from a new yorker describes a former girlfriend who said not all the abuse took case during sexual encounters. schneiderman reportedly slapped his girlfriend during an argument. how does that change any argument that slapping someone is a sexual proclivity? it s very odd he would parse it out the way he did, that he d never engage in nonconsensual sex. that s the line he would not cross. apparent lly assault is not onen which he d vehemently deny the allegations and simply say he vehemently contests the allegatio allegations. a very interesting legal term. maybe because he has his eyes toward a defamation case or other things, calling somebody a liar, or their actual statements to be untruthful. what that says to me is he had legal counsel and he, himself, by the way, the top dog lawyer in new york, should know enough not to make a blanket statement that could be used against him later. legally speaking that you didn t commit noncon sensensual sex, k