Cuomo is Ending His Sad Political Career the Same Way He Started It
History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme
Six months ago, it looked like former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo was finally coming in from the cold.
After being pressured to resign following a series of allegations of sexual harassment, the son of famed Empire State Governor Mario Cuomo sought to return to political acceptability by seeking the mayoralty of New York City.
And as late as last spring, it looked like his scheme was going to work, as he was sitting on a massive polling lead that put him ahead of other Democratic candidates.
But then an immigrant with hard-to-pronounce name who moved to New York City as a child ended up demolishing the scion of the state’s most famous political family.
Zohran Mamdani’s unlikely rise frustrated Cuomo enough that he decided to launch an independent bid against the new Democratic nominee. The political press took Cuomo seriously, and billionaires lined up to support the campaign against Mamdani. But as of this writing, not a single poll puts Cuomo anywhere near Mamdani’s commanding lead.
Perhaps that’s why Cuomo’s campaign has gotten so desperate lately. His campaign posted a cringeworthy video including supporters who accused Mamdani (who is Muslim) of being a secret Hindu. Cuomo channeled his inner Taliban preacher to tell a debate audience that Mamdani (who is a Shia Muslim) is opposed by “Sunni Muslims” and that he supports “haram” activity (in this case, decriminalization of prostitution). And the Cuomo team posted and quickly deleted a bizarre video featuring AI-generated black pimps, keffiyeh-clad protesters, and an assortment of criminals supporting a rice-eating Mamdani.
(OK, yes, Indians sometimes eat rice and especially biryani, which contains things like drumsticks, with their hands. Wow, who knew other food cultures existed?)
But the low point came on Thursday morning, when Cuomo appeared on a friendly radio program and started bantering with the host Sid Rosenberg about Mamdani.
Here’s a rough transcript:
CUOMO: God forbid, another 9/11—can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?
ROSENBERG: He’d be cheering.
CUOMO: (Laughs) That’s another problem.
The suggestion that Mamdani, who was approximately 9 years old when the 9/11 attacks happened, would have cheered the massacre set off condemnation even from elected Democrats who are not supporting his campaign.
Daniel Goldman, a relatively moderate Democratic congressman from New York, excoriated Cuomo, saying that “there’s no room for hate and bigotry in our politics or in our country, and that includes naked Islamophobia suggesting a Muslim candidate for Mayor would cheer for a terrorist attack against the city he’s running to lead.”
But the quite frankly dull xenophobia from Cuomo was, believe it or not, not the first time the man has bombed a political race with a boneheaded comment about 9/11 (a fact first pointed out by whipsmart New York City politics writer Michael Lange).
Back in 2002, Cuomo was running for Governor against incumbent Republican George Pataki. Pataki had, like New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, served as a steady captain for the region following the tragic 9/11 attacks, helping coordinate the massive emergency response that was mobilized to save lives.
To Cuomo, however, he deserved no credit whatsoever.
“There was one leader for 9/11: it was Rudy Giuliani,” Cuomo said to reporters who were on a campaign bus with him. “If it defined George Pataki, it defined George Pataki as not being the leader.”
He went on to denigrate Pataki’s role in helping the state heal.
“He stood behind the leader,” he said. ‘’He held the leader’s coat. He was a great assistant to the leader. But he was not a leader.”
The remarks set off a firestorm among New Yorkers who were loyal to Pataki. Giuliani himself came out and rebutted Cuomo’s caustic remarks.
‘’I held his coat as often as he held mine,” he said. “We were inseparable.”
Later that year, Cuomo ended up pulling out of the Democratic race for the nomination, conceding it to Comptroller Carl McCall (who lost to Pataki in the end).
Nobody should be shocked by Cuomo’s decidedly bigoted turn in the mayoral race. If there is one thing that typifies his political style, it’s naked ambition and endless cynicism. His term as governor was marked by an authoritarian style; people were afraid to oppose him because of what he could do to their careers.
He rode his nepo baby status as long as he could, even to the point of assuming that New York City voters would hand him the Democratic nomination in the mayor’s race when he barely campaigned or set foot in the city. It turns out that while the Cuomo name is strong, it’s not so strong that voters will simply serve as the vehicle for your political redemption when you have next to nothing to offer them.
It’s poetic that Cuomo made a variation of the same mistake twice. His style of politics is based on aristocratic autopilot: he never carved out a unique vision or strong set of values. He’s a Cuomo. Why wouldn’t you want him to run Camelo- I mean the Empire State?
But whatever you think about Mamdani, who almost certainly will be crowned the victor in less than two weeks, he hustled the heck out of the race. A Muslim guy who is known to be strongly opposed to Israeli policies winning control of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel? That’s a political miracle.
Yet this miracle would never have been possible without Cuomo’s endless arrogance.
He may finally learn that no actually means no.
We'll see. While I'm not a big Mamdani fan, I have been hoping that Cuomo will lose this race. His time as Governor should be enough in my eyes for him to never be in political power again. But we'll see if the voters agree. If anything I'm hoping that Cuomo losing this race will serve as at least a symbolic blow to the New York Political Establishment. If the voters are unhappy with the cost of living in their area, perhaps try to actually address their issues rather than blame them and serve up former failed politicians.
It's also nice watching the strategy of accusing one's opponent of being weak or supportive terror backfire. This strategy has been used quite bit over the years, mostly to go after critics of the GWOT. So watching it get called out like this by even "centrists" now is a real win even before the election.
The only way I could think that Mamdani's name is hard to pronounce is if you say, "Mad-man." instead. Just like it's easy to say, "Cow-moo," instead of Cuomo.