On Fox News, a conservative wondered out loud: "Is it possible to be a feminist and a decent person?"
Just kidding. Hard to imagine that question would be asked. If someone did dare pose it, the liberal media would come crashing down on the miscreant's head.
But no one blinked an eye on CNN This Morning on Thursday when journalist Margaret Talev, in a segment on Andrew Cuomo's comeback attempt to be Mayor of New York City, said:
"The question is, can you be masculine and embrace your masculinity and also be a decent person at the same time?"
Cuomo resigned as governor of New York in August 2021 after Democrat Attorney General Letitia James found he had sexually harassed 11 women, including two who were not state employees.
Host Audie Cornish opened the segment with a clip of her podcast interview of Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. Burke called the prospect of Cuomo's nomination a "mistake." She argued that discounting "violence against women" is what's "killing us" and making progress impossible.
Turning to her all-female panel, Cornish, speaking of Cuomo, plaintively asked: "Why not look for leaders without the baggage?"
Nia-Malika Henderson of Bloomberg claimed that Democrats see as the path forward, "White men, moderate white men. Kind of manly white men as well. And I think if you look at Andrew Cuomo, that is the part that he's playing."
Hanna Rosin of The Atlantic, who wrote a book titled The End of Men, jumped in with this: "A right-wing radio commentator who was very popular said to me, the problem with Democrats is they don't have any manly enough candidates. That the Democrats are not manly enough, and that's why they can't win elections. What do you guys think about that?"
That's when Talev wondered if a man could be masculine and a decent person at the same time.
To answer her question, Talev might start by considering the 3,535 men [there's been one woman] who have been awarded the Medal of Honor. Or Todd Beamer, he of "let's roll" fame, who along with other men attempted to retake United Airlines Flight 93 from hijackers on 9/11.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
3/6/25
6:19 am ETAUDIE CORNISH: Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo officially pitching his political comeback to New Yorkers, and he's betting they're ready to forgive and forget.
Cuomo announced he's running for mayor of New York City. He resigned in 2021 after he was accused of sexual misconduct. But we're in the post-MeToo era now? So for this week's episode of my podcast, The Assignment, I spoke to the woman who started the MeToo movement, Tarana Burke, and asked her about Cuomo's potential return to office, what that says about not just Democrats, but society at large.
TARANA BURKE: I was literally about to go live, and I never do that on Instagram the other night. I was like, this is the -- and I hope this stays in, because I need to say this.
We will never be able to move forward. And when I say move forward, I mean collectively towards liberation. This is not about women or men or even sexual violence.
But the kind of world that so many of us say that we want to live in, we will not get there when we keep making these same kinds of mistakes. When we discount violence against women as a serious enough offense, right? It always gets dismissed.
So what happens is, somebody like Andrew Cuomo decides he's going to run for mayor, and people are like, oh, yeah, he's great. He knows how to govern. He can beat such and such and blah, blah, blah.
And then somebody will say, but wait a minute. What about, and they're like, uh, well, yeah, that was terrible, or maybe that happened, but. And that "but" is what's gonna kill us. That but is what sets us back.
CORNISH: You guys just heard what Tarana said. Nia, I'm gonna start with you. Why not look for leaders without the baggage? Is it that it's no longer considered baggage?
. . .
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: If you think about the conversations that are going on in the Democratic party, they see white men as the path forward, and possibly-
CORNISH: -- Moderate white men who talk about law and order.
HENDERSON: Moderate white men. Kind of manly white men as well. And I think if you look at Andrew Cuomo, that is the part that he's playing.
CORNISH: Okay, manly men.
HANNA ROSIN: Manly men, I was just going to say.
CORNISH: I feel like you're going to have thoughts.
ROSIN: I want you guys to respond to this. So somebody, it's a right-wing radio commentator who was very popular, said to me, the problem with Democrats is they don't have any manly enough candidates. That the Democrats are not manly enough, and that's why they can't win elections. What do you guys think about that?
HENDERSON: Well, listen, I mean, I think that's partly what Andrew Cuomo was doing. If you think about what was going on with Biden, some of that, he was old, he was weak, he wasn't manly enough. He wasn't, he didn't project strength in the way that Donald Trump was able to.
CORNISH: Or that, those are, in our minds now, those things are equal.
HENDERSON: Exactly.
CORNISH: Right? That's the only way.
MARGARET TALEV: There is a comeback movement for masculinity. The question is, can you be masculine and embrace your masculinity and also be a decent person at the same time?
