Andrew Cuomo is back

How quickly they forget

Yesterday, Andrew Cuomo announced that he is running for mayor of New York City. The commentary I’ve seen and heard suggests that he’s likely to be the city’s next mayor.

This article in the Washington Post explains why:

The contest will focus on the standard issues of a mayoral election — crime, housing, jobs, immigration. But whoever eventually prevails, the New York race is also starting out as a choice between someone with a track record of fighting Trump and another who appears willing to compromise the city’s independence to help the president deport large numbers of undocumented New Yorkers.

If a record of fighting Trump is the deciding factor, it’s clear who wins. Stormy Daniels is a non-resident and E. Jean Carroll is too old (and is otherwise occupied figuring out how to spend the money she won from Trump). That leaves Cuomo.

Cuomo is pitching himself as a proven leader who gets things done:

He highlighted his long experience in government and referenced his leadership during covid. “We showed that government can actually work and get things done,” he said. “Big, hard important things.”

The mainstream media is playing along:

“Competent management is the true ideology of New York City, and he’s got a ton of credibility when it comes to that,” said Errol Louis, a longtime chronicler of New York and the political anchor of Spectrum News NY1, where he hosts “Inside City Hall,” a nightly prime-time show that focuses on New York politics.

But about that “leadership during covid. Wasn’t it Cuomo who ordered thousands of people infected with that virus to return to nursing homes with deadly consequences for old folks living in those homes?

Yes it was. Furthermore, Cuomo was under investigation by the Justice Department for trying to cover up his malfeasance, until the Biden administration helpfully called it off.

To divert attention from what, for any rational electorate, would be a deal-breaker, the mainstream media is focusing on a different, less damning (but hardly trivial) Cuomo scandal — allegations that he sexually harassed staff members. It was these allegations, not his responsibility for mass deaths during covid, that caused his downfall as governor.

The “Me Too” moment has faded. America now has a president who bragged about sexually assaulting women and who was found by a jury to have sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll. I assume that New Yorkers are prepared to elect a mayor who, it appears, sexually harassed staff members on the theory that it takes a liberal S.O.B. to fight the MAGA S.O.B. in the White House.

But might New Yorkers have qualms about electing the S.O.B. responsible nursing home deaths in the state? Probably not.

But just in case, the mainstream media is downplaying that story and (as I said) diverting attention from it to the sex harassment scandal. Of the two CNN panels I watched on this subject, one never mentioned the nursing homes while the other mentioned it only in passing at the end of the segment.

Similarly, the Washington Post mentions the harassment angle early on, apparently equating it to Mayor Adams’ corruption problem:

[Like Adams] Cuomo carries his own ethical baggage, having resigned from the governorship in 2021 amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

Only much later, near the end of its article and well after the bit about Cuomo’s “ton of credibility” when it comes to “competent management,” does the Post mention the nursing home scandal — in passing.

I’ll conclude with a different point that I think has been absent from the discussion of Mayor Adams and the New York mayor’s race:

Yes, Trump’s handling of the corruption case against Adams stinks. But let’s not forget that what Adams apparently offered Trump in exchange for holding off on the charges was cooperation in combatting illegal immigration in New York City.

Such cooperation would be highly desirable. The quest for it does not justify compromising the rule of law in the Adams prosecution, as Trump has done, but it’s worth asking whether Andrew Cuomo, if elected mayor, will provide it.

I don’t think so. As governor, he signed an executive order to protect illegal immigrants from “fear and intimidation.” He also issued a cease-and-desist order against ICE after it arrested illegal immigrants.

Cuomo is talking tougher about illegal immigration now. Yet, he’s running, in part, as the man who, unlike Adams, will stand up to Trump. What is it that Adams has not stood up to Trump about? The handling of illegal immigrants.

Thus, if Cuomo becomes mayor, the city will be saddled with a mayor responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents and a mayor who likely will protect illegal immigrants who are draining taxpayer resources, committing crimes, and making the city less livable for those who are here legally.

That’s a big price just to get a liberal who measures up to Trump on the S.O.B. scale