National spotlight fell on Cuomo
Governor’s approach to virus, Powerpoints inspired ardor, aversion
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the first confirmed case of COVID -19 in New York on Sunday, March 1. The next morning, on CNN, he said “there will be community spread,” but that “there’s no reason for concern.”
Ten months later, with more than 36,000 fatalities in New York attributed to coronavirus, the world looks very different. And for New York’s 63-year-old, three-term governor, who has spent decades in politics, the limelight has never shined more brightly, or more hotly, than it did for much of this year, bringing with it adoration and aversion.
In early March, the Legislature voted to give Cuomo unbridled
unilateral authority to rewrite or issue laws as he sees fit. Those orders can be rescinded by majority votes of the two chambers, but they have avoided doing so even as many lawmakers have called for the governor’s powers to be reined. New York’s COVID -19 response since then has been a reflection of one man’s approach — Cuomo.
Beginning in late March, as New York became the nation’s epicenter for the virus, Google Trends data shows that searches for “Andrew Cuomo” peaked in the spring, dwarfing all other points in his public career. For a brief period, he was more popular on the search engine behemoth than Joe Biden, his party ’s presumptive nominee for the presidency at that time.
Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, said that in the early weeks, it felt like “an intellectual exercise and responsibility,” kind of a puzzle of trying to keep as many people safe as possible.
Then on a weekend night about a week in, sitting at Excelsior Pub after a meeting, he got a call saying two Assembly members had COVID -19 and the Capitol was shutting down. That’s when it hit home personally.
It also hit home for everyone else as the state was ordered by the governor to shut down, devastating New York’s economy and pushing millions of people out of work. Amid the shutdown — which Cuomo dubbed “New York on Pause” — he faced protests from out-ofwork New Yorkers and saw the state’s unemployment system become overwhelmed and backlogged as people struggled to get by.
Cuomo’s briefings continued, often picked up live on national cable news stations, and many around the country tuned in each day. People were drawn to the Powerpoint presentations, the props, his fixation on facts over opinion and his personal anecdotes. He received praise for his steadiness in the midst of a troubled time for the country.
Cuomo also selected his news outlets carefully, including appearing on his brother Chris’ CNN show and other stations where he often avoided facing tough questions. In October, as the nation continued battling the pandemic, Cuomo published a book, “American Crisis,” recounting his handling of the coronavirus response even as New York was entering a resurgence of the virus.
Azzopardi said the national fame “snuck up on us,” as the governor was giving the same kinds of presentations he has for a decade in office. With the country in a new frame of mind, Cuomo’s normal style just connected differently.
“He used to get teased for the Powerpoints,” Azzopardi noted.
Then this year, Cuomo won an Emmy award, and he was a finalist for Time magazine’s person of the year. Google Trends show that his popularity peaked in the last week of March into early April.
His fame launched fan clubs on social media, with his most loyal followers dubbing themselves “Cuomosexuals” and speculating about the governor’s nipple piercings amid talk of drafting him for the White House.
“Brother, you gotta find your joy where you can,” Azzopardi said with a laugh of all the weirdness. In conversations with Cuomo about these topics, he said, the governor “takes it all in stride.”
But beyond the adulation, the spotlight has also spawned harsh criticism.
In early December a former staffer of Cuomo’s, Lindsey Boylan, came forward and posted on Twitter that the governor had “sexually harassed me for years.”
Cuomo commented on her appearance, bullied her and scared people away from speaking up about it, Boylan said, adding that her experience was shared by others who were too afraid to speak up. Cuomo has categorically denied Boylan’s claims, and Boylan has avoided specifics and refused to speak to reporters about her accusations.
Critics throughout the year have also focused particularly on Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes in the ongoing crisis, saying the governor’s actions were what allowed the virus to spread like “fire through dry grass” through the facilities, as he had at times described it.
More than 6,500 New Yorkers in nursing homes have died of COVID -19, which Cuomo has pointed out is a smaller portion of the total number of deaths compared to some other states. Critics have countered that Cuomo’s Department of Health has only counted deaths in nursing homes, rather than people infected there who went on to die in hospitals, which they say artificially depresses the numbers.
Howard Zucker, Cuomo’s health commissioner, told the Legislature over the summer that he would provide the data showing how many people who became sick in nursing homes later died in hospitals. He has yet to do so.
Republicans in the Legislature, including state Sen. James Tedisco, a Glenville Republican, have seized on the issue, saying the governor is engaging in a “cover up” to hide the real number of nursing home deaths.
“Although he’s a very knowledgeable person and a very intelligent person, he makes the same mistake that Richard Nixon made,” Tedisco said. “You gotta give him credit. I mean, he got an Emmy for his ability to communicate to the media, to the public, but he doesn’t want to answer the tough questions in those instances.”
Azzopardi said that while the administration would have done some things differently with the benefit of hindsight — an earlier mask mandate and more of an understanding of asymptomatic spread — he attributed much of the criticism to politics.
“I really think they don’t know what they ’re talking about,” he said. New York had to build reporting systems for nursing homes basically overnight, Azzopardi said, and there was no uniform model set by the federal government.
Both Republicans and Democrats have requested more detailed numbers on the nursing home deaths from Cuomo’s health department, which has not been forthcoming. Zucker has said the department is investigating and compiling the data, but offered no detailed explanation for the delay.
“I know if that number comes out it’s going to be an embarrassment to the governor, but some things rise above politics,” Tedisco said.
Regardless of the criticism, Cuomo’s star has risen this year. His Google search numbers are still higher than they were before the pandemic.
That popularity is demonstrated by Amy, in her 40s, who lives in Nashville and works in the auto industry. She runs a Twitter account dedicated to Cuomo’s neckties, which often feature fun patterns. Although Amy has never lived in New York, she began tuning into the briefings earlier this year while working from home. She noticed the governor’s ties and decided to start the account.
She now is able to quickly identify exactly where the governor buys his ties based on the patterns and some quick Google searches. His favorites appear to be Vineyard Vines and Salvatore Ferragamo, she said. The account has about 1,000 followers, and she said it has had more than 270,000 total engagements in the last month alone.
“I have a journalism degree, so yeah, my professors would be proud that I’m using my research skills for a tie account on Twitter,” Amy said.
She was forced to turn off direct messages from the general public “because I was getting some weird stuff,” she said. “People would say how much they loved him, or the opposite. … It made me blush for him sometimes.”