Cuomo Without a Net and just a blankie

Cuomo without a net

Cuomo on the grounds of the Executive Mansion in Albany yesterday. Photo: Angus Mordant/Reuters

An occasional adviser who has known Andrew Cuomo for nearly 40 years tells me the New York governor — after a career of playing hardball, including over-the-line threats — has "no net of good will" to catch him.  After a cascade of harassment accusations, his resignation is being demanded by both of the state's U.S. senators (Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand), almost the whole 29-member congressional delegation, and a majority of Democrats in the state legislature. Two astonishing articles yesterday quoted a chorus of former aides about the toxic workplace he created and condoned — where young women were constant targets of unwanted attention and touching.  In New York Magazine, Rebecca Traister writes: "In speaking with 30 women, ... almost all who worked for him commented on the extreme pressure applied by both the governor and his top female aides to dress well and expensively; some were told explicitly by senior staff that they had to wear heels whenever he was around." "The sheer amount of interpersonal drama, anxiety, and rancor that former Cuomo staffers described was wholly exhausting, like something from 'The Devil Wears Prada.'" "Multiple people told me that they began therapy and antidepressants for the first time in their lives while working for Cuomo." Keep reading. More than 35 current and former Cuomo employees described his office to the N.Y. Times as "chaotic, unprofessional and toxic, especially for young women": "Twelve young women said they felt pressured to wear makeup, dresses and heels, because, it was rumored, that was what the governor liked." "Several recalled having to cut short vacations or miss their children’s birthday parties for seemingly minor tasks such as transcribing television interviews with local politicians in other states whom Mr. Cuomo feared could someday become political rivals."Keep reading (subscription). New York Magazine Between the lines: I asked someone who was personally threatened by Cuomo how all this could have stayed secret. "It was a very insular world," the source explained. "If you weren't part of it, you didn't have much visibility into it — and if you were in it, you kept its secrets." Go deeper: How Cuomo investigation, impeachment could play out.

2. Digital bots come for office jobs

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Software bots are getting smarter and more capable, enabling them to automate much of the work carried out in offices, Bryan Walsh writes in Axios Future. Think of bots as robotic assistants, scheduling meetings, approving expense requests and probably somewhere, submitting reports in triplicate, "Office Space"-style. "When people think of automation, they think of actual robots," says Kevin Roose, a tech reporter at the N.Y. Times and the author of the new book "Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation." "But RPA [robotic process automation] is a huge industry that basically no one knows exists, and it really is accelerating." Keep reading.

3. Axios interview: Klain recalls the night the U.S. shut down

Ron Klain talks to MSNBC's Chris Hayes at the Lincoln Memorial after President Biden's prime-time address on Thursday. Via MSNBC

White House chief of staff Ron Klain recalls being live on "Rachel Maddow" on March 11, 2020, as pandemic news thundered in waves — President Trump addressing the nation, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson hospitalized, the NBA shutting down. In an interview for our "Axios Re:Cap" podcast, Klain tells Dan Primack: "The country hadn't been prepared for what was coming, and people were making these kind of ad hoc decisions." Klain, who was White House Ebola response coordinator in 2014-2015, said that for him, the pandemic started in January, when he wrote his first op-ed on the virus — and advised Biden to write his own. Read/listen. 🎧 Primack's podcast series, "The Week America Changed," includes interviews with Anthony Fauci, Sheryl Sanderberg, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and more. Hear it here.