Even as he tries to plot a political survival strategy in the face of sexual misconduct allegations, Mr. Cuomo is an object lesson on the dangers of kicking people on the way up.
Last spring, when the coronavirus outbreak was surging in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s daily briefings became appointment television for many, as he authoritatively ticked through the latest statistics on infections, hospital beds and deaths. Behind the scenes, Mr. Cuomo was often obsessed with another set of numbers: his ratings. He would sometimes quiz aides as soon as he ended a broadcast about which networks carried him live and exactly when they cut away — data they were expected to have at their fingertips. For an image-obsessed politician who has long devoured almost everything written about him, it was an intoxicating amount of attention as Mr. Cuomo transformed almost overnight into a national leader of the Democratic Party and a foil for President Donald J. Trump. “To the 59 million viewers who shared in these daily briefings,” Mr. Cuomo said on his 111th and final daily update, “thank you.” That June day Mr. Cuomo gathered his team in the backyard of the governor’s mansion in Albany for a mostly mask-less celebration — an aide said attendees took Covid tests — toasting their accomplishments with beer and wine. For some allies of Mr. Cuomo, that period was the apex of an Icarus-like arc for a leader convinced of his own hype and indestructibility. Less than a year later, Mr. Cuomo’s governorship is imperiled, as he faces allegations of groping, sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior made by six women; an independent investigation into those accusations; an impeachment inquiry by state legislators; a federal investigation into his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic; and collapsing support from leaders in his own party. Yet for all of that, Mr. Cuomo is now furiously plotting a path to salvage his job, his legacy and even a potential fourth-term re-election run in 2022, according to Democrats familiar with his thinking. In defiant remarks on Friday, Mr. Cuomo accused Democratic leaders of “playing politics” by calling for him to resign and demanded they wait for the “facts” as he impugned the motives of the women who have come forward. “A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons,” Mr. Cuomo said, denying he ever sexually harassed anyone. Be it his self-regard, his disdain for fellow Democrats or his imperious demeanor, Mr. Cuomo alienated allies and enemies alike on his way up in politics, and now finds himself sliding from hero-level worship to pariah-like status with the kind of astonishing speed that only the friendless suffer. It is a downfall foretold in a decade-long reign of ruthlessness and governance by brute force, according to interviews with more than two dozen lawmakers, elected officials, current and past Cuomo administration officials, political activists and strategists in the state. For Mr. Cuomo, politics has always been a zero-sum game: For him to win, someone else must lose, whether it is the legislator whose idea he is taking credit for, or Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose initiatives he routinely stomped. The same domineering approach that won plaudits in the depths of the coronavirus crisis has bruised a generation of Mr. Cuomo’s peers, such that many were ready to turn on him once vulnerable. “The problem with Cuomo is no one has ever liked him,” said Richard Ravitch, a former Democratic lieutenant governor. “He’s not a nice person and he doesn’t have any real friends. If you don’t have a base of support and you get into trouble, you’re dead meat.” New York’s two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have now abandoned him, along with most of the state’s congressional delegation. A majority of the State Legislature, whose members he has long treated dismissively, have called on him to resign, including more than 40 percent of his fellow Democrats. “I have not met a person yet in New York politics who has a good relationship with Andrew Cuomo,” said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat and outspoken critic of the governor who also once worked in his administration. “And I’m not saying ‘close relationship,’ I’m saying ‘good relationship.’ Even people who are close to him I cannot say in good faith have a good relationship with him.” As one Cuomo adviser put it, the governor has burned so many bridges that he has left himself with virtually no path forward. Yet those who have been close to Mr. Cuomo say they cannot imagine him resigning, not least because it would leave him short of matching the three full terms of his father, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, let alone topping him with a fourth by running in 2022. The elder Mr. Cuomo, who died in 2015, looms large in almost any discussion of the younger Mr. Cuomo’s ambitions to stay in the governorship. At Andrew’s third inaugural address, the one in which he equaled his father, he wore a pair of Mario’s shoes, according to a person familiar with his wardrobe. Even in his current diminished state, Mr. Cuomo maintains some formidable political strengths, including a nearly $17 million war chest.
