New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has become the national hero of America’s coronavirus crisis. For the last three days, increasing numbers of Americans have tuned in to Cuomo’s morning press conference to get facts on the pandemic. More importantly, Cuomo is providing reassurance at a time when people feel their entire world has become unpredictable and very, very frightening.
“For me, it reminded me of 9/11, where one moment, which was inconceivable, just changed everything,” he said at one press conference. “Nobody can tell you if this is going to be the stress, the emotion, is just incredible, and rightfully so. It is a situation that is one of the most disruptive that I have seen and it will change almost everything going forward. It will. That is a fact. It’s not your perception, it’s not just you. It’s all of us.”
I come from New York, so it made sense for me to watch Cuomo. What I realized as I scrolled through the comments is that people all over the country were tuning in. One woman wrote:
“Thank you Governor Cuomo for your calm, cool, collected daily updates. I am a Nebraskan, and we are lacking similar updates. Even though I am not in New York, your leadership is appreciated. Can you coach our governor?”
The former head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration, Cuomo has taken measures in New York that the federal government should have taken weeks, if not months ago, closing schools, reducing state and local workforces in government offices, and asking businesses to reduce staffing, first by 50 percent and on Thursday, after a new cascade of positive test results, by 75 percent.
"As he gains in stature, I can almost guarantee that his relationship with Trump will sour. On The Apprentice, there’s only one star."
Recognizing the economic toll of the pandemic, he unilaterally ordered lenders to suspend mortgage payments for stressed homeowners for three months. He froze evictions and foreclosures for the same amount of time.
Did anyone know a governor could do that? Apparently they can. But they can’t do everything. At every press conference, Cuomo has pointedly said that there are certain things only the federal government can do. In phone calls, tweets, and press conferences, he has been urging President Trump to use the military and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build out hospital capacity. New York has the highest rate of coronavirus in the country, largely because of a cluster in New Rochelle and the dense population of New York City. If the virus spreads as it’s expected to, there’s no question that the metropolitan region’s hospitals will be overwhelmed.
Having taken my sick mother to one of these hospitals, I can tell you that even in ordinary times, these places are straight out of a bad Nic Cage movie: sirens, crazy naked guys roaming the halls, and blood, lots of it. If coronavirus overwhelms the system, we’re talking Fourth World.
Trump is listening. For the past two mornings, after phone conversations between the two men, Cuomo has struck a conciliatory note, stressing that the president is “engaged.” This is a dramatic change from a month ago, when Trump shut down New Yorkers’ ability to enroll in trusted traveler programs that allow quick check-in at airports, over Cuomo’s insistence that undocumented people should get driver’s licenses.
Only three days ago, the two men were in a pitched Twitter argument:
“Cuomo of New York has to ‘do more,’” Trump wrote.
“I have to do more?” Cuomo tweeted. “No — YOU have to do something! You’re supposed to be the President.”
Like lovers after a quarrel, the two men now seem to be in a bromance of sorts. Both have spoken warmly about the other, and yesterday, at Trump’s orders, the U.S. Army Corps met with Cuomo to plan for setting up much-needed emergency medical facilities in New York. Cuomo, who has been a controversial governor, is becoming the hero of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s in his blood.
I can almost guarantee you that he heard the same tales from his parents that I heard from mine. Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, a three-term governor of New York, was born in Queens in 1931, the same year as my mother. As kids, they lived through the Depression in struggling families. The radio reassured them: Fiorello LaGuardia reading the comics to kids on Sundays and Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” my mother used to quote from FDR’s Lend Lease speech, urging the American public to war. A little over the top for convincing a shy ten-year-old to go to a birthday party, but that, too, is very New York.
Here’s the problem. Cuomo knows quite well that these press conferences are giving him a higher profile, and he’s going to milk them for all they’re worth. He’s long been considered a presidential contender. As he gains in stature, I can almost guarantee that his relationship with Trump will sour.
On The Apprentice, there’s only one star.
If that happens — when that happens — it is Americans who will suffer. Andrew Cuomo has turned into our Comforter-in-Chief. Nearly 300,000 people tuned in to his speech Thursday. Cuomo’s reporting of facts is much-needed, but more importantly, as his one-time boss Bill Clinton used to say, he feels our pain.
Cuomo’s daughter Micheala was sent home from college like the kids of so many Americans. She sat on the podium with him today, nodding, but also occasionally giving him the “Oh, Dad” look as he spoke of how he had persuaded her not to go on vacation for spring break. (Hint: He didn’t tell her what to do, because, as we all know, that doesn’t work with kids.)
Cuomo has been brusque at times; some call him arrogant. But like his father, beloved in his home state of New York, Andrew Cuomo is a real human being. That, in the end, is exactly why Trump will turn on him. Let us hope — no, let us pray — that enough of Cuomo’s agenda is adopted before the bromance ends.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has become the national hero of America’s coronavirus crisis. For the last three days, increasing numbers of Americans have tuned in to Cuomo’s morning press conference to get facts on the pandemic. More importantly, Cuomo is providing reassurance at a time when people feel their entire world has become unpredictable and very, very frightening.
“For me, it reminded me of 9/11, where one moment, which was inconceivable, just changed everything,” he said at one press conference. “Nobody can tell you if this is going to be the stress, the emotion, is just incredible, and rightfully so. It is a situation that is one of the most disruptive that I have seen and it will change almost everything going forward. It will. That is a fact. It’s not your perception, it’s not just you. It’s all of us.”
I come from New York, so it made sense for me to watch Cuomo. What I realized as I scrolled through the comments is that people all over the country were tuning in. One woman wrote:
“Thank you Governor Cuomo for your calm, cool, collected daily updates. I am a Nebraskan, and we are lacking similar updates. Even though I am not in New York, your leadership is appreciated. Can you coach our governor?”
The former head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration, Cuomo has taken measures in New York that the federal government should have taken weeks, if not months ago, closing schools, reducing state and local workforces in government offices, and asking businesses to reduce staffing, first by 50 percent and on Thursday, after a new cascade of positive test results, by 75 percent.
Recognizing the economic toll of the pandemic, he unilaterally ordered lenders to suspend mortgage payments for stressed homeowners for three months. He froze evictions and foreclosures for the same amount of time.
Did anyone know a governor could do that? Apparently they can. But they can’t do everything. At every press conference, Cuomo has pointedly said that there are certain things only the federal government can do. In phone calls, tweets, and press conferences, he has been urging President Trump to use the military and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build out hospital capacity. New York has the highest rate of coronavirus in the country, largely because of a cluster in New Rochelle and the dense population of New York City. If the virus spreads as it’s expected to, there’s no question that the metropolitan region’s hospitals will be overwhelmed.
Having taken my sick mother to one of these hospitals, I can tell you that even in ordinary times, these places are straight out of a bad Nic Cage movie: sirens, crazy naked guys roaming the halls, and blood, lots of it. If coronavirus overwhelms the system, we’re talking Fourth World.
Trump is listening. For the past two mornings, after phone conversations between the two men, Cuomo has struck a conciliatory note, stressing that the president is “engaged.” This is a dramatic change from a month ago, when Trump shut down New Yorkers’ ability to enroll in trusted traveler programs that allow quick check-in at airports, over Cuomo’s insistence that undocumented people should get driver’s licenses.
Only three days ago, the two men were in a pitched Twitter argument:
“Cuomo of New York has to ‘do more,’” Trump wrote.
“I have to do more?” Cuomo tweeted. “No — YOU have to do something! You’re supposed to be the President.”
Like lovers after a quarrel, the two men now seem to be in a bromance of sorts. Both have spoken warmly about the other, and yesterday, at Trump’s orders, the U.S. Army Corps met with Cuomo to plan for setting up much-needed emergency medical facilities in New York.
Cuomo, who has been a controversial governor, is becoming the hero of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s in his blood.
I can almost guarantee you that he heard the same tales from his parents that I heard from mine. Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, a three-term governor of New York, was born in Queens in 1931, the same year as my mother. As kids, they lived through the Depression in struggling families. The radio reassured them: Fiorello LaGuardia reading the comics to kids on Sundays and Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” my mother used to quote from FDR’s Lend Lease speech, urging the American public to war. A little over the top for convincing a shy ten-year-old to go to a birthday party, but that, too, is very New York.
Here’s the problem. Cuomo knows quite well that these press conferences are giving him a higher profile, and he’s going to milk them for all they’re worth. He’s long been considered a presidential contender. As he gains in stature, I can almost guarantee that his relationship with Trump will sour.
Susan Zakin is the editor of Journal of the Plague Year and the author of Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement. She has written for Vogue, Salon, GQ, The Baffler, The New York Times and many other publications.