Female Reporter Now Says Cuomo’s ‘Eat Whole Sausage’ Comment Wasn’t Harassment, Says It Was ‘Informal’ Event

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Mar 1, 2021

A video that popped up on the Internet recently that showed Gov. Andrew Cuomo issuing a challenge to a female reporter to eat a whole sausage in front of him has been spurring on further allegations of sexual harassment against the embattled politician.

Beth Cefalu has come out and denied that the interaction had anything to do with the other current allegations against Cuomo, noting that she didn’t feel pressured or “harassed” by the governor when made the challenge during an “informal” media event that took place during the 2016 New York State Fair.

“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. It’s really sad it’s being turned into anything more,” Cefalu said in a post that put up on Twitter.

“This is why people hate ‘the media,’” she went on to say, “misleading headlines and one-sided articles twisting reality. It’s really sad that any media will turn fun at the fair into some sleazy scandal that it wasn’t.”

via Daily Wire:

The reporter similarly told Fox News in a statement, “The governor was trying to be nice and got me some food. It’s probably the one day of year or story of the year he and I can be a little informal and that’s what this was nothing more. He did not pressure me – he was not hitting on me nor did I feel harassed in anyway.”

Fox News outlined the resurfaced video as follows:

“I want to see you eat the whole sausage,” Cuomo can be heard telling Cefalu, as his daughter Michaela sits quietly next to him. A now-former aide to Cuomo could be seen handing Cefalu a sandwich.

“I don’t know if I should eat the whole sausage in front of you, but I’m definitely going to eat it,” Cefalu responds.

Cuomo then invites Cefalu to sit at his table. Before eating, Cefalu snaps a selfie with the governor while holding up her food.

“There’s too much sausage in that picture,” Cuomo says, prompting laughter from others at the table.

Cuomo has already been accused of sexual misconduct by two other women. Former Cuomo aide Lindsey Boylan says she was sexually harassed and forcibly kissed by Cuomo before she quit her position.

The other accuser, Charlotte Bennett, served as a low-level aide in Cuomo’s administration until last November and said she was asked inappropriate questions about her sex life. One of those questions included whether or not she’d ever had sex with older men.

Other questions, she claims, seemed to be geared toward gauging her interest in having an affair.