The Draft Andrew Cuomo Thread

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo awoke before dawn on Tuesday, emerging after a few hours’ sleep to board a helicopter to New York City for the coronavirus briefing that has become a daily ritual for him and for the millions of people now watching.

But this event would be different. The outbreak was moving faster than he had expected, with the number of confirmed cases doubling every three days, and he decided he needed to show people — including the White House — how desperate the situation had become.

“You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?” the governor said, referring to a recent federal government shipment to New York.

“What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?” he said later. “You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.”

The governor repeatedly assailed the federal response as slow, inefficient and inadequate, far more aggressively than he had before.

Mr. Cuomo was once considered a bit player on the national stage, an abrasive presence who made his share of enemies among his Democratic Party peers. He was too much of a pragmatist for his party’s progressive wing, too self-focused for party leaders and too brusque for nearly everyone.

But now, he is emerging as the party’s most prominent voice in a time of crisis.

His briefings — articulate, consistent and often tinged with empathy — have become must-see television. On Tuesday, his address was carried live on all four networks in New York and a raft of cable news stations, including CNN, MSNBC and even Fox News.

In a sign of the way Mr. Cuomo has become the face of the Democratic Party in this moment, his address even pre-empted an appearance by former Vice President Joseph Biden on ABC’s “The View” in New York.

Mr. Cuomo’s handling of the crisis has fostered a nationwide following; Mr. Biden called Mr. Cuomo’s briefings a “lesson in leadership,” and others have described them as communal therapy sessions. The same blunt and sometimes paternalistic traits that have long rubbed his critics raw have morphed into a source of comfort.

The governor’s actions have not always been at the forefront: He waited several days last week, as the count of confirmed cases continued to rise, before instituting an order to close nonessential businesses and ask residents to stay at home, even as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California had already done so.

The question of whether to enact a shelter-in-place edict degenerated into a semantics debate with Mayor Bill de Blasio, resurfacing a petty feud between the two New York Democrats.

Mr. Cuomo also changed course — within the span of a Sunday afternoon — deciding to close New York City’s schools hours after casting doubt on such a plan.

Still, Mr. Cuomo’s daily addresses have stood in stark contrast to the sometimes contradictory pronouncements coming from Washington.

Mr. Cuomo’s briefings have been filled with facts, directives and sobering trends: On Tuesday, the governor disclosed that the number of positive cases in New York had risen past 25,000, and that the state now projects it will need up to 140,000 hospital beds to house virus patients.

There were also signs that Washington was listening: after Mr. Cuomo spoke on Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence said 2,000 ventilators were being sent to New York, with a promise of 2,000 more on Wednesday.

Mr. Cuomo’s explanation for his popularity is simple. “I’m not doing anything different than I have ever done,” the governor said in an interview on Monday. “It’s just a bigger audience. And it’s a more intense time.”

That fire was evident on Tuesday, as he disparaged a remark by Texas’s lieutenant governor that older residents might not mind dying to save the economy.

“My mother’s not expendable,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding, “We’re not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable. And we’re not going to put a dollar figure on human life.”

Fuck New York

Since the crisis began to take shape, the governor’s aggressive posture has won compliments from admirers ranging from conservative pundits like Sean Hannity, who recently hosted Mr. Cuomo on his radio show, to the progressive comedian Chelsea Handler (“I’m officially attracted to Andrew Cuomo”).

Even President Trump has taken notice: His team has scheduled his appearances in the afternoon so as not to interfere with Mr. Cuomo’s briefings, including on Tuesday, when the president’s town hall event on Fox News began after the governor’s briefing ended. Mr. Trump took issue on Tuesday with the governor’s comments about not receiving enough ventilators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We are working very, very hard for the people of New York,” the president said. “We are working a lot with him. Then I watch him on this show complaining.”

With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer practically sequestered in negotiations over economic relief measures and Mr. Biden at home in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Cuomo has effectively offered the Democratic response.

“He represents the kind of leadership we should have in the presidency and don’t,” said Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who said her West Coast constituents are praising Mr. Cuomo. “His stock has gone way up.”

For all of that positive press, the sudden spotlight has shone on Mr. Cuomo at a politically inopportune time: His friend, Mr. Biden, is quickly closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination, something that Mr. Cuomo — like his father, the former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo — had been said to covet.

Mr. Cuomo has consistently insisted he’s happy in Albany, where he has a deep understanding of levers of power. As the first cases appeared in New York, for example, Mr. Cuomo secured $40 million from the Legislature to fight the virus, as part of a bill that also greatly expanded his authority over disaster management, something he said he knew he would need as the virus began to spread outside of China.

“Anyone who was watching realized it right away,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding, “It was inevitable that what happened in China was going to happen here.”

Since then, the governor has used his executive authority to close schools, shutter Broadway and send the National Guard to support the beleaguered residents of New Rochelle, a suburb just north of New York City that was an early hot spot for the virus. And while the state’s high caseload has put him on the front lines — and the front page — he may ultimately be judged by the final toll of the crisis, which he has said could last six months or more.

Mr. Cuomo acknowledged that he is on a steep learning curve in dealing with the pandemic, and that mistakes might be made; on the day Mr. Cuomo ordered the closure of nonessential businesses, he said, “I accept full responsibility. If someone is unhappy, somebody wants to blame someone, people complain about someone, blame me.”

Mr. Cuomo’s forthrightness has led to praise from an unlikely and diverse set of commentators: George Conway, the conservative attorney who is also the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway (“He’s doing a terrific job with these presentations”); Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and a potential future Republican candidate for president (“I look forward to watching Gov. Cuomo’s news conference every day”); and even the leading strategists for his old rivals in New York.

A large measure of Mr. Cuomo’s sudden popularity seems to lie in the tonal and material differences between his briefings and those of Mr. Trump’s.

“I think the rest of the country is witnessing and appreciating this because of the lack of leadership coming from the White House,” Representative Grace Meng, a New York Democrat and vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said.

Ms. Meng said Democratic lawmakers in Congress are now tuning into Mr. Cuomo daily — and then group texting about what he says. “Every morning they watch Gov. Cuomo and his briefing and discuss it on our text chains,” she said.

But unlike most Democrats, Mr. Cuomo has been careful to not criticize Mr. Trump personally for the federal government’s response to the virus, while not sparing agencies like FEMA, which he castigated on Tuesday.

In fact, he has praised the president and the vice president by name on several occasions, a calculated strategy that paid earlier dividends: The state’s public health laboratory in Albany, Wadsworth Center, was the first to be given approval by the F.D.A. to administer its own coronavirus tests independent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A military hospital ship is now planning to port at the New York Harbor, and a raft of federal field hospitals will be constructed in and around New York City, now one of the epicenters of the virus in the world.

Mr. Cuomo’s approach to Mr. Trump has contrasted with the more confrontational style of Mayor de Blasio, who has frequently blamed Mr. Trump for not acting decisively to attempt to curb the spread of the virus.

While the president seemed displeased with Mr. Cuomo’s broadside on Tuesday, he had previously made it clear that he preferred the governor’s approach to that of City Hall. “I’m dealing with the governor,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “The governor agrees with me, and I agree with him.”

Even on Tuesday, before the president criticized Mr. Cuomo for “complaining,” he acknowledged that he had just seen the governor’s briefing. “I watched Governor Cuomo and he was very nice,” Mr. Trump said.

The governor has a history, of course, of working with Republicans: until 2019, the New York Legislature had largely been split by virtue of the Republicans’ long hold on the State Senate, a situation which some progressive groups accused Mr. Cuomo of encouraging, as a way to thwart policies he felt were too liberal or impractical.

The governor also shares other personal touch points with Mr. Trump: They are both from Queens, have known each other for years and have followed in their fathers’ footsteps.

Mr. Cuomo’s father, who looms large in the current governor’s life, also had a moment of national prominence: the famed “Shining City on a Hill” speech in 1984, which seemed poised to propel him to higher office. It did not.

Mr. Cuomo has found a poetic, almost sentimental streak amid the dark news, appearing alongside his daughters at news conferences, and naming a new law, aimed at protecting older residents from infection, for his mother, Matilda.

On Monday, sitting with his daughter, Cara Kennedy-Cuomo, the governor said the crisis had afforded him opportunity to spend more time with her as she has volunteered to help with the state’s response, staying with him in the governor’s mansion.

“She’s going to go do her thing, but this crazy situation is crazy as it is, came with this beautiful gift,” Mr. Cuomo said. “So one door closes, another door opens. Think about that.”

Cuomo is doing a fantastic job in handling the virus. But he'd never make it as a candidate. There's too much association with scandals and Cuomo.

And the Atlantic's article

Draft him for what? He’s right where he needs to be.

BernieBros, realizing that their candidate is toast, further attempt to destroy the party unity.

America says 'no' to Jews, Italians and gays.

Thanks, Andrew. I like him in NYS, but we need to get going Biden to get Dumb Donald OUT.

Seriously, OP: draft him for what? I’m confused about the thread here.

The military, Rose.

For the Phoenix Suns, Rose.

[QUOTE] The military, Rose.

Oh oh, Anthony. He’s a big boy, he knows what he said.

Draft him for what? Explain yourself, OP.

His briefing today is a bit confusing in terms of numbers and now he's praising Trump and Kushner for their cooperation and help with the ventilators when yesterday it was the opposite.

If the US Tour de France team drafts off of Cuomo they will win. Deductive challenged morons cause Coronavirus.

I don't know if Cuomo realizes what he just did at the briefing today, but he just gave a two minute commercials in why not to live in NYC.

He has an Al Pacino quality, especially when he yelled "You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators!" in Queens-ese.

Is OP ever going to explain himself? Like this, for example:

[QUOTE] it looks like the pandemic has drastically upended the Democrats' expectations of what they want in a leader.

What the hell does that mean?

I also was surprised at his praise of Trump and Kushner in today's briefing. Maybe he's having to genuflect to get what he needs?

It was a weird briefing today, r23. He did a complete reversal on what he said yesterday on the defense production act and Trump.

Also, early on his numbers were confusing. He was using expected hospitalization numbers from a few days ago and then in the next slide showed the rate rate of hospitization was dramatically decreasing (and more than expected) everyday for the last three days and is expected to continue to decrease.

And his opinion slide on why NYC is being hit the hardest should have been titled: Andrew's 10 reasons to not live in NYC.

Andrew has the same baggage as "Pop".

There's a reason why Mario never ran for POTUS.

I wish he'd be asked at one of his daily briefings if the Coronavirus is as devastating as his finding his Kennedy wife in bed with that polo player.

How would Cynthia Nixon be handling the Coronavirus crisis in NY if she had beaten Cuomo?

^^^LOL.

"Oh oh, Anthony. He’s a big boy, he knows what he said."

Who is Anthony?

Fuck that fucking fuck.

It’s a line from Goodfellas, R29.

[QUOTE] I wish he'd be asked at one of his daily briefings if the Coronavirus is as devastating as his finding his Kennedy wife in bed with that polo player.

Wait a minute, Cuomo’s wife was the one cheating on him? I thought it was the other way around.

Not a Cuomo fan but he's making the rest of the Democrats look like tits on a boar. Including the presumptive nominee, who points at the sun and says "Oooo, shiny!"

Once had a trip to a foreign country and it was weird because at one point the little jitney bus we were riding to the jungle temple in stopped and picked up two military guys with small machine guns. It made me nervous until our driver explained that the country was full of 'thugs' and these were our 'thugs'

Andrew Cuomo is my thug in this shit.

You're very funny, R32.

Kennedy/Cuomo: The Splitting Image of a Dynasty

By Michael Powell

July 9, 2003

Cuomolot is in marital flames.

Andrew Cuomo sits in his suburban Bedford, N.Y., fastness and rages about his wife's betrayal. Kerry Kennedy decamps to her Hyannisport compound, where paparazzi train telephoto lenses on her bikini-bared abs. And the other man, the "polo-playing Romeo" in tabloidspeak, hops a plane to Argentina.

The best dynastic coupling of the past few decades has come asunder. Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario, apparently discovered evidence that his wife, Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Bobby, had fallen into the arms of his former friend, the polo player, and that was that. News of the split arrived demurely the first day, as anonymous retainers announced an amicable separation.

He's a politician not the saintly leader that people who want to draft him as nominee makes him out to be. He's also been playing fast and loose with the facts like a used car salesman the past couple of days. Trying to hoard equipments and supplies for New York by using old charts and figures when the hospitalization rates are way down.

R33, you do realize that Cuomo Is currently IN OFFICE and is doing his job as governor of the hardest hit state. The "presumptive nominee" can only do so much without seeming like he is trying to undercut the government. You should check out Joe's interview with Jake Tapper from yesterday, Biden is doing more than just pointing at shiny objects.

The big tough Italian was a cuckold?

While Cuomo is looking Presidential, Biden is looking like just another YouTuber.

I don't blame Kerry Kennedy. Andrew used to look like this:

If we had a president who was running a functioning government wouldn't the plan for how to deal with this virus be coming out of Washington? It would be handled by Global Health Security and Biodefense working with the CDC, but Trump closed the GHS and Biodefense offices.

So Governors are having to step in and figure this shit out. I

don't like Cuomo but this shouldn't be left to the states to figure out on their own, but they have no choice.

Looks like this wasn’t OP’s first stab at this. Here’s another thread he made:

[QUOTE]“the pete wing of my facebook feed now thinks cuomo should be president”

[QUOTE]You’ve lost them, Joe.

Now we know his motive. He’s here to use Cuomo as a vessel to bash Joe Biden and divide the Democratic Party. Can’t quite calculate if he’s a BernieBro, but it’s clear he plans to sneakily undermine Joe every chance he gets on here throughout the election.

[quote]You should check out Joe's interview with Jake Tapper from yesterday, Biden is doing more than just pointing at shiny objects.

Biden's interview with Nicole Wallace.

Can any of you make sense of this? It's so fucking sad.

If Biden hadn’t shot his mouth off with his pandering promise to select an unnamed female running mate, he could now be capitalizing on Cuomo’s popularity by choosing him for the VP slot. Cuomo’s drawbacks would be less of a concern there and he’s demonstrated he can handle a challenge. The idea of Biden dropping dead and Cuomo taking over wouldn’t scare anyone.

But what’s the real story about NYS turning down the opportunity to purchase 16,000 ventilators several years ago? If there is some truth in that, perhaps that is why Cuomo and Trump are playing nicer now.

Yup, I sure can, r44.

Yes, R33, I realize Cuomo is currently IN OFFICE and doing his job. How else would he be making Biden look like an afterthought?

It's especially bad for Biden as he has no record as an executive or leader, besides pushing against busing, relating his hairy legs/Corn Pop stories, advocating for cutting Social Security, and feeling up little girls. One may find the contrast unfair, but that's politics for you.

R47 replying to R38.

R38, Jake Tapper reprimanded Biden for coughing into his hand during their interview.

R44 posting stories from sources that gave us this gem....

Looks like Trump's flying monkeys arrived. Get the fuck out of here.

R47 clearly doesn't know Joe's record as VP. HA! Get new talking points.

Working link to r51...

It must scare the shit out of you fucktards that Joe is polling better than Trump in states that Trump won last election. I guess that's why we see the flying money invasion.

[quote]posting stories from sources that gave us this gem....

R51 What are you babbling about? The source is MSNBC.

It's from RealClearPolitics, r55, but you knew that.

Begone, Trumpanzee!

R51, there is still time for the Democrats to dump Biden before he nods off into his soup. Not everyone who points out his manifest inadequacy (especially next to an actual executive like Cuomo) is a Trumpanzee, Bernie Bro, or Russian Bot. The electorate is looking for leadership with strength, common sense, and decision. Are they going about it 100% logically? Not necessarily, but that's tough.

As to Joe as VP, nobody cares. He just looks like he's squeezing Obama like a lemon because he has no juice of his own. And his record as a senator is mostly pandering to credit card companies, hugging segregationists, and leading the attack dogs against Anita Hill. He's a horrible candidate and he looks weaker and more out of touch every day.

Awwwww, the widdle Trumpanzee is stamping his feet and insisting he's not a Trumpanzee.

Biden can always play the I’m putting him in charge of pandemic management as vp sorry ladies card. Extraordinary times. He could probably get away with it.

Shrug.

OK, R58, pointing out Biden's enormous flaws makes a "Trumpanzee".

Best of luck to you and your candidate/identity marker.

[quote]It's from RealClearPolitics, [R55], but you knew that.

The source of the interview is MSNBC.

What an idiot.

These people are talking like it’s January or February still. I mean hello,10 million Democratic voters have already come out and cast ballots for Joe. He’s blown away your hero Bernie Sanders in state after state, and now has an insurmountable delegate lead. Nobody’s “dumping Biden” for Cuomo. But you know that and just want to undermine our presumptive nominee, even though all your previous efforts have failed miserably.

The source of the editorialized version of what you posted was a right wing outfit, r61. But again, you knew that.

R62 I don't give a shit about Bernie Sanders. Bernie who?

The thread is entitled "The Draft Cuomo Thread".

It's impossible to draft Cuomo, but with the sad state of Joe Biden, I can understand the desperation.

I am not a New Yorker, but I can say from a fly-over state, it is NICE to see an adult in charge. I also extend that to Gavin Newsom.

[quote]The source of the editorialized version of what you posted was a right wing outfit, [R61]. But again, you knew that.

The full interview is there for all to see, and it's even worse in it's entirety.

r9, indeed, the epicenter of the virus

[QUOTE] It's impossible to draft Cuomo, but with the sad state of Joe Biden, I can understand the desperation.

Joe Biden’s state is the same as it’s been since he entered the race. And yet Democrats are supporting him at higher levels than they did our last nominee. So they must be fine with it.

People vote for candidates they "like," the one's they want to talk to, the one's they'd invite over for Sunday dinner, the ones they'd like to meet their grandmother. No matter what Biden says, he's that guy. People LIKE him, he'll be fine.

"by choosing him for the VP slot..."

That's absurd. Cuomo will not be Biden's or anyone's VP. It'll be a costly rejection.

one's S/B ones.

In R64, you said this:

[QUOTE] It's impossible to draft Cuomo

But in R57, you just said this:

[QUOTE] there is still time for the Democrats to dump Biden before he nods off into his soup.

😂 Try harder to keep your trolling consistent, dummy.