I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, March 1st.

Governor Cuomo is not denying the account of a second employee who came forward this weekend and said he sexually

harassed her in his office. 25-year-old Charlotte Bennett was quoted telling the New York Times

that the governor asked her about her sex life, including if she had slept with older men,

and that Cuomo, who is 63, said he would consider a relationship with a woman in her 20s.

Again, Ms. Bennett is 25.

This allegedly happened just last year, June 5th of 2020, she says.

You will remember that last Wednesday, Lindsay Boylan, age 36, Cuomo's former deputy secretary of

economic development, released a statement alleging what she called repeated sexual harassment, including the sentence, let's play strip poker, during an airplane flight on a business trip in 2017, and that he shocked her by kissing her on the lips at the end of a business meeting in his office in 2018.

The governor yesterday released a statement.

So this is his first real statement on this, and it's not a denial, and it includes an apology.

It's short, so I'll read the whole thing.

Questions have been raised, the governor writes, about some of my past interactions with

people in the office.

I never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm.

I spend most of my life at work and colleagues are often also personal friends.

He says, at work, sometimes I think I'm being playful and make jokes that I think are

funny. I do on occasion tease people in what I think is a good-natured way. I do it in public and in

private. You have seen me do it at briefings hundreds of times. I have teased people about their

personal lives, their relationships about getting married or not getting married,

I mean no offense and only attempt to add some levity and banter to what is very serious business.

The governor goes on to an admission. I now understand that my interactions may have been

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