For more than a decade, Cuomo ruled New York State in a unique and brutal way, being dubbed the "King of New York" by the media.
Text: Zhan Juan, chief writer of the New York Chinese Information Network
Last spring, as the coronavirus pandemic surged in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's daily briefing became a must-see TV show for many, taking people through the latest statistics on infections, hospital beds, and deaths, relying on data, applying logic, rational and human, filling the void left by the federal government's capricious response to the outbreak.
Behind the scenes, Cuomo is often obsessed with another set of numbers: his ratings. Sometimes as soon as the briefing was over, he would ask the assistant which networks broadcast his briefing live, and when they cut it off — and when they were asked, the assistant needed to have exactly the data.
The seven weeks of New York's response to the frontal attacks of COVID-19 were the culmination of Como's political career and prestige, and he became the national leader of the Democratic Party almost overnight, the antithesis of President Trump, a concern that has long raved about all the coverage of him is intoxicating. In his 111th and final daily update, Cuomo said, "Thank you to the 59 million viewers who shared the message in the daily briefing. ”
A year later, on August 10, Cuomo announced that he would resign as governor, and in addition to multiple women's sexual harassment allegations confirmed by New York state prosecutors, he also faced other problems, including improper policies toward nursing homes during the epidemic and the complete loss of support from the leaders of his party.
For more than a decade, Cuomo ruled Albany in a unique and brutal way, trampling on enemies and alienating allies over the rise of his political career, and now he finds himself sliding from a national hero to a political abyss with an astonishing speed.
Scandals continue
Before resigning, Cuomo went through a series of scandals. It seems to appear once a month:
Last December, Lindsey Boylan, a former assistant to the governor, accused him of sexual harassment.
The following month, a report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that the governor's government underestimated the death toll of thousands of state nursing home residents.
In February, another aide, Charlotte Bennett, said he had also harassed her.
In March, it was reported that Cuomo had used state resources to help him write a memoir. That same month, New York State lawmakers launched impeachment inquiries into sexual harassment allegations and his handling of nursing homes.
In April, Lawmaker Ron Kim said that after he criticized the government's handling of the state's nursing homes, the governor called his home and yelled at him for 10 minutes.
During those months, Zhan Lexia's office launched several investigations. Cuomo said at a news conference: "I ask the people of this state to wait for the facts in the Attorney General's report before forming an opinion." She's on a review, and I'm going to fully cooperate, and then you'll know the facts. ”
On Tuesday, the New York public got the facts. Ms. Zhan released a 165-page report detailing the findings of her investigators over five months. The governor "conducted conduct consistent with the definition of sexual harassment under federal and New York state law," the report said. He touches, kisses and touches people without consent, makes comments involving sexuality and aggression, and manages an office rife with a culture of "fear and intimidation."
Investigators found that the claims of 11 women, including Boylan and Bennett, were credible and their statements corroborated. The survey included interviews with more than 150 people and a review of some 74,000 pages of documents. Investigators, meanwhile, argued cuomo's denial was "fabricated" and "inconsistent with the weight of the evidence obtained."
The report is full of details that have not been reported before. A state police officer told investigators she caught the governor's attention at an event in 2017 and that she was transferred to the governor's security team despite having no work experience. "Haha, they changed the minimum period from 3 years to 2 years, specifically for you," a colleague emailed her. Cuomo then sexually harassed the policeman at work, stroking her abdomen and back and commenting on her private life.
Investigators reviewed correspondence and other materials written by the governor's aid and found that his denials were fake even in the eyes of those around him. In March, a senior staffer wrote: "Cuomo is a man who understands the subtle dynamics and workings of power better than almost anyone on the planet, and he actually says he doesn't realize that his actions are harassment." Either he's completely aware of what he's doing or he's narcissistic enough to mistakenly assume that all women like him. ”
The most vivid and frustrating details of the report may appear on the first page. Investigators explained in a footnote that many of the people they interviewed, including several accusers, "expressed concern and fear of retaliation and demanded that their identities not be revealed as much as possible." "Investigators respected this request. The governor of New York created an atmosphere in which citizens would not speak openly to the state's top law enforcement, an intolerable political situation that was a scandal in itself.
Until the time of his resignation, Cuomo had not acknowledged that he was deliberately committing sexual harassment, portraying himself as the victim of a "politically motivated" controversy. Admitting that he had kissed and hugged many people, but had no intention of offending or harassing anyone, he stressed, "In my opinion, I never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn't realize how far the line was redrawn, and I didn't fully understand the intergenerational and cultural shifts." ”
History repeats itself
Many observers of New York politics wondered one thing about the barrage of accusations and criticisms That Cuomo endured over the past few months: Why has it only come to light so far?
Cuomo often said that governance is "an art." He was a master of government governance – a model of talent and hard work. But he was also a master of political art. "He didn't make too many political mistakes," a former city official told The New Yorker.
Andrew Cuomo's mother comes from a brooklyn family with properties in both the district and New Jersey. The son of Italian immigrants, Mario, the son of a full-grade graduate from St. John's Law School, began his own entrepreneurial career in Brooklyn when no law firm in Manhattan was willing to hire him, with one of his clients being Fred Trump, the father of the 45th U.S. president.
When Mario entered politics in 1977, Andrew, then 19, was a muscular young man who would climb up lampposts at night to put up posters of his father and tear off posters of his rival, Ed Koch. During that campaign, new York boroughs popped up overnight with the slogan "Vote for Cuomo, not gay." Andrew has always denied anything to do with the matter. Decades later, he became a hero for gay rights, and as governor he successfully passed the Marriage Equality Act — a complete upheaval of the original homophobic image.
In 1982, in the Democratic gubernatorial primaries, Andrew became his father's de facto campaign manager, earning him a reputation for being arrogant and tough. After winning the 1982 gubernatorial race, Cuomo Jr., the executive director of the father's transition team, kicked his foot on the table in an interview with The New York Times, lit a cigarette and declared: "I've recently become very popular." ”
During Mario Como's tenure as governor, his son was known as the "Thug.".
"Mario has to be a good guy, so Andrew is in charge of playing the bad guy," said Richard N. Gottfried, a 50-year-old Democratic congressman. "He's very good at this."
Andrew then spent a few years in the private sector, working as a lawyer for a firm that served many of New York's largest real estate families, including the Trump family, before founding a nonprofit called Help to build housing for the homeless. Paul Feiner is now mayor of Greenborough, New York. He said that in the late 1980s, when he was a councillor in Westchester County, Andrew Cuomo wanted to build a transitional housing project here, and Feiner wanted to downsize the project, and the two got into an argument. Finner recalled to The New York Times when Cuomo called him: "I'm going to ruin your business and break every bone in your body." Finner said he eventually voted for the entire project.
Cuomo apparently cared deeply about the project, and on his first date with former President John F. Kennedy's niece, Kerry Kennedy, he took her on a tour of one of the housing facilities. The two married in 1990, and the Cuomo family married the Kennedy family. Andrew also rose up the national political ladder, becoming housing secretary during President Bill Clinton's second term.
In 2002, Cuomo decided to run for governor of New York, in part to avenge his father— Mario Sr. lost to Republican George Pataki six years earlier. But Cuomo failed to do so, and after realizing that he had little support, he withdrew from the Democratic primary. According to Cuomo's biographer, Kerry Kennedy asked for a divorce shortly afterwards. Cuomo was at one point in his political and personal life.
He didn't get depressed for long, winning the attorney general's seat in 2006 and by the time Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor in 2010 over a prostitute scandal, Cuomo had built up his connections and support in New York State and was elected governor of New York.
To the shock of veteran political observers in New York, Cuomo's trajectory of his downfall was remarkably similar to spitzer's. Both reached the top on their own, but could not find a few friends in difficult times.
Soon after taking office, Spitzer claimed to be a "road roller" and threatened to crush a state legislator. This year, after harshly reprimanding Democratic Rep. Kim, Cuomo's negative press grew. Kim said the governor threatened to "destroy" him. People who have worked with Cuomo feel extremely familiar with this conversation.
"They're all the way," Mr. James Tedisco, a Republican senator who spit on Spitzer, said of Spitzer and Cuomo. "They'll do whatever it takes to get there and try to destroy you."
This week, Tedico tweaked his statement, saying, "Andrew Cuomo is a gasoline-out roller. ”
Authoritarian
For Cuomo, politics has always been a zero-sum game: if he wins, someone else has to lose.
Former Democratic lieutenant governor Richard Ravitch said: "The problem with Cuomo is that no one has ever liked him. He wasn't a nice guy and didn't have real friends. ”
"In New York politics, I haven't met a single guy with a good relationship with Andrew Cuomo," said Senator Alessandra Biaggi of New York. Mr. Biggi is a Democrat who has been outspoken to the governor and has worked in his administration. "I don't mean 'intimate,' I mean 'good relationship.'" Even with people who are close to him, I can't say they have a good relationship with him. ”
Cuomo forged elaborate alliances after taking office, and many believe that it was at his strategic suggestion that a group of conservative Democrats formed an independent Democratic convention that formed an alliance with the Republicans and thus effectively controlled the state Senate. Democrats call it a "coup." Cuomo's office called the matter a "matter of internal legislation" and denied anything to do with it.
Over a period of 10 years, he pushed for the legalization of same-sex marriage, passed tougher gun control measures, raised the minimum wage, and launched numerous major infrastructure projects. With a group of hardline lawmakers behind him, he created an atmosphere of bullying in the state capital, but he could also push many agendas.
Last March, as the CORONAVIRUS spread, Cuomo had the legislature grant him broad emergency powers, enabling him to unilaterally enact or suspend laws. In the months that followed, he issued 70 executive orders and signed about 225 laws.
In some ways, such a situation was perfect for Cuomo. "He leans toward tyranny," one Democratic lawmaker told The New Yorker. "But in a crisis, that's what people want — people who can take orders and take control of the big picture." This situation is tailor-made for a tactician of his ability. ”
Progressive strategist Monica Klein said that shortly before the death of Westchester County Councilman Richard Brodsky in April, "the last thing he yelled at me was' You need to tell everyone, Andrew Cuomo is an authoritarian!'" ’”
Last year, Cuomo allowed only himself to receive praise, and he especially could not tolerate seeing New York Mayor Blasio get half a praise.
Once, when De Blasio announced the delivery of supplies, including ambulances, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cuomo rebuked FEMA's regional director, Thomas von Essen, in an unusually blunt manner, saying that he was supposed to deliver supplies through New York State.
On another occasion, Cuomo and Deshow greeted the arriving U.S. military medical ship Comfort at different docks. According to people involved in the program, Cuomo canceled plans for a possible joint appearance. The governor deliberately scheduled the event an hour earlier than Deshow and seemed reluctant to share the spotlight.
Since the glory in the handling of the epidemic should all belong to Como, of course, the responsibility should also be borne by him. When people began to re-examine Como's performance in the epidemic, some problems were exposed. The sharpest criticism has to do with the mortality rate in New York nursing homes, which are privately run but regulated by the state government.
The Como government issued a corporate exemption law on March 25: If executives at hospitals and nursing homes make decisions that result in the death of people during the pandemic, they are exempt from legal consequences. But a subsequent investigation revealed that Como's top aide, Melissa De Rosa, admitted that her father, brother and sister were employed by a lobbying firm representing GNYHA. GNYHA, a medical industry conglomerate that has funned millions of dollars into Como's political machine, has spearheaded the push for the exemption. A report by New York State Attorney General Jen Lexia shows that the Cuomo administration not only withheld information about nursing home deaths, but also did so in order to preemptively avoid political and legal consequences.
Cuomo will obviously be remembered for cutting the ribbon on large infrastructure projects that many believe will never be completed. For example, the Mario Como Bridge replaced the Tappan Zee Bridge, one of his proudest bridges, which is why he hung his father's name on it. In addition, the legalization of marriage equality in New York in June 2011 was a remarkable political achievement, and he applied all his superb skills to pressure, deal politics, sweet talk, and cajoling. He did it. But there is always a lot of darkness behind success.
Source: New York Chinese Information Network
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