Alec Baldwin Doubles Down On Defending Cuomo’s Actions

Alec Baldwin defended his tweet that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation was “tragic,” after receiving backlash from the comment. 

“Regardless of what you think of Cuomo, this is a tragic day,” he wrote on Tuesday. “Party politics in this country draw ambitious but ultimately isolated, even socially maladjusted men and women who, given the current cancel culture, will likely have their shortcomings exposed and magnified.”

After being roasted by critics for the tone-deaf tweet, he explained in a follow-up that he wasn’t defending the disgraced lawmaker’s actions against women, but that Cuomo had become so “isolated” by power.

“I am not seeking to ‘minimize’ Cuomo’s actions regarding sexual harassment. What he did is wrong. Everyone gets that. And now he is leaving,” Baldwin wrote. “When I wrote that this is tragic, I meant to suggest that nearly all-powerful politicians are isolated, in the extreme, from reality.” 

“The people who you vote for in this country in the broader, more powerful elected positions, don’t give a sh– about you. Or what you want,” he continued. “They work for their large donors, unions, and corporations. That is how the US system is designed. Powerful people holding on to power.”

But Baldwin wasn’t finished, on Tuesday night he released a rambling 15-minute video where he appeared shirtless to discuss his comments further.  

“I wrote about Cuomo. I said it was ‘tragic,’ and by’ tragic,’ I don’t mean what happened to him… what happened to us!” he said, then noted that he didn’t want to “pile on Cuomo” because the sexual harassment allegations against him are “sad” for the governor and his family.

“When these things happen it’s a shame for our society. Cuomo was a person who was presumed to be president… Then when that didn’t work out, he was presumed to be the person to have a fourth term,” he went on, noting that the “nursing home thing” could have been a potential hurdle to getting re-elected.  

Baldwin went on to shift the blame for Cuomo’s actions onto his accusers. “Let’s say you’re the Governor of New York and a young intern is in your office or a new hire is in your office and they’re sitting there and they’re smiling at you and they’re giving you this kind of warm glow,” he explained. “And the mistake that’s often made by some of these people is, that warm glow is reserved for the office of the governor, that’s what’s causing them to glow.”

He believes the women were “intoxicated” by Cuomo’s status as Governor, which led to his “mistake.”

“You’re sitting there going, ‘oh man, I think that this woman is into me, she’s got that special glow that tells me… I think she’s into me.’ Then what are you going to do?” He continued. “Are you going to go on from there? Not everybody does but some do. That’s a mistake that gets made when you’re living in that bubble.”

“Anyway it’s tragic for us, when these things happen, it’s tragic for us in our society,” Baldwin concluded. “How much more negative, how many more ruptures do we need in our society?”

Marie Finn