Even in a Pandemic, Andrew Cuomo Is Not Your Friend
In chaotic times, New York governor Andrew Cuomo wants to convince you he is the calm, competent leader you need. It’s been effective — so effective you might miss that even in a pandemic, Cuomo is fighting to protect the rich and impose austerity, including devastating Medicaid cuts, on everyone else.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo gives a daily coronavirus press conference in front of media and National Guard members at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being turned into a hospital to help fight coronavirus cases on March 27, 2020 in New York City.Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty
Andrew Cuomo’s daily press conferences have made him the Democratic Party’s “most prominent voice in a time of crisis,” as certified by the New York Times. Cuomo projects the competent and candid tell-it-like-it-is tough guy persona that millions of New Yorkers and Americans crave in a time of panic and uncertainty.
He gives particular reassurance to those unnerved by the daily chaos of Trump’s press conferences, a contrast he carefully cultivates: “I try to present unbiased facts. I try to present numbers because people need information. When you get anxious, when you get fearful, when you don’t get the information or you doubt the information, or you think people do not know what they are talking about, or you think you are getting lied to . . . so I present facts.”
The message is clear. #PresidentCuomo, as a trending hashtag dubbed him, will give you the real facts where President Trump gives ‘alternative” ones; is even-keeled and trustworthy where Trump is mercurial and self-interested; knows what he’s talking about where Trump spouts misinformation and lies.
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