Trevor Noah changes tune on Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid sexual harassment, nursing home scandals

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"The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah made a self-deprecating joke about his own past admiration for embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

The host dedicated a portion of his show on Monday to mocking the politician after multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment. The news came at a time when Cuomo is also facing criticism over his handling of the coronavirus for allegedly underreporting nursing home deaths by as much as 50% to avoid federal scrutiny. 

Noah ripped into Cuomo, who defended himself against the harassment allegations by noting that he sometimes tries to be "playful" with his employees.

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Trevor Noah (right) slammed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his administration's misreporting of coronavirus death numbers in nursing homes and sexual harassment claims. (Getty Images)

"Guys, of course he was being playful. I mean, imagine your much older, politically powerful boss turns to you and says, ‘when was the last time you were really hugged?’ that’s super playful. Can’t you feel your skin crawling with delight?" he joked. "Here’s the thing, even if Cuomo did think that he was just being playful, it’s still not OK. This is what bosses never seem to understand. If you’re a boss, you should never be flirtatious with your employees because, as a boss, you’re basically a dragon, alright? Nobody is ever trying to hug a dragon. They’re just trying to get out of the cave in one piece."

Noah’s comments on the New York governor are a far cry from ones he was making last year when he was among the many celebrities praising Cuomo for his daily press briefings that covered how he was handling the pandemic back when the state was the epicenter of the virus in 2020.  During his monologue on Monday, he cleverly winked at the fact that he once considered himself a "Cuomosexual."  

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"And I’ll tell you man, all those people who praised Cuomo so highly last year, those people really don’t look so smart now," he said before looking off-camera and demanding that someone "delete the tapes!"  

"I mean, it must be so embarrassing, can you imagine if you’re one of those people?" he added, before demanding the off-camera person "burn" the tapes. 

Indeed, Noah previously spoke on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show in April of 2020 where he praised Cuomo as a leader amid the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

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"It genuinely has been very inspiring and refreshing to see a leader like Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, who has come out and engaged his briefings in a non-political way," Noah said at the time. "He’s engaged them as a leader, he’s engaged them as a human being, he’s also taken the blame for things where he says ‘look I understand that I’m doing certain things that people will hate me for and I’m willing to make these decisions because I think it’s the best thing for human life first. We can always create business afterward. I think he’s informative, I think he’s informed."

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He added: "Everyone should be a Cuomosexual in that way. You should love a leader who engages the people and remembers that they’re serving the people as opposed to the people working for them. Any leader doing that in a crisis, I applaud them."