New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D.) said God told him he was a feminist by giving him three daughters, while speaking about his support for abortion rights during an event in Brooklyn.
Cuomo spoke Monday at a campaign-style rally billed as an official government event, where he signed an executive order he said would require insurers to cover abortion procedures. At the event, women held Planned Parenthood posters and Public Advocate and Attorney General candidate Letitia James called Cuomo a feminist, as did Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D., N.Y.).
Cuomo is facing a primary challenge from his left by actress Cynthia Nixon.
"Tish James says I’m a feminist and she’s right," Cuomo said, according to Spectrum News' State of Politics blog. "God told me I was a feminist when he gave me three daughters. My father was a feminist. God told him he was a feminist when he had 14 grandchildren, 13 girls out of 14 grandchildren."
"God told me I was a feminist when he gave me three daughters," Cuomo says.
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 9, 2018
Per @JimmyVielkind and @GannettAlbany tweets, Cuomo quote may have been phrased: "God told me I was a feminist when I had three daughters."
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 9, 2018
Update: The original quote was correct
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 9, 2018
The precise Cuomo quote was this: "Tish James says I'm a feminist and she's right. God told me I was a feminist when he gave me three daughters. My father was a feminist. God told him he was a feminist when he had 14 grandchildren, 13 girls out of 14 grandchildren."
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 9, 2018
State of Politics reports:
At the event, Cuomo blasted "extreme conservatives" in Washington, D.C. and he criticized Republicans in the state Senate for having "drank the Trump Kool-Aid 100 percent."
He urged Republicans in the Senate to "come back today" and approve the Reproductive Health Act, an abortion-rights bill that has stalled in the Senate. The measure had been part of a package of measures first introduced in 2014 known as the Women’s Equality Agenda, with provisions meant to address gender issues in the workplace and housing as well as an anti-human trafficking measure.
The RHA has not been made law, however, and it’s almost a certainty Republicans in the Senate would not return to Albany to take up the bill before the president’s new Supreme Court justice is confirmed.
Nixon slammed Cuomo on Monday for taking a progressive turn only because of her primary challenge.
"He’s put his finger in the wind and realized too late that if one is going to call oneself a progressive one has to fight like a progressive," Nixon said at a press conference in Queens. "You shouldn’t only govern and fight like a Democrat right before the Democrat primary, you should do it after the election too."