The about-face on Andrew Cuomo was so sudden and jarring, I fear most Americans might be suffering from whiplash. We went from hagiography to hit job in no time flat.
Makes me wonder who or what prompted such a sudden shift in gears.
The media and the Democrats never act out of decency or a moral sense of right an wrong. And they never, ever turn on their own – even if he sleeps with a Chinese spy. So there must be some ulterior motive behind this coordinated hit job against the hitherto-dubbed “LuvGov.”
The floodgates were opened by Cuomo’s fellow NY Democrat, Attorney General Letitia James.
I live in New York. Believe me. Democrats in New York do not take shots at fellow Democrats – let alone take aim at King Andrew.
When Letitia James first released her report on Cuomo’s nursing home disaster, I posited that James could be preparing to primary Cuomo in 2022. Yes, that means the Attorney General was using her office to launch a political hit job to weaken a future opponent. But Democrats have done worse to harm their political enemies – like use the FBI and CIA to spy on them.
I still believe Letitia James’ motives weren’t purely about seeking justice for the families of those who died. If that was the case, I think Letitia would’ve jumped on this back in April 2020 when Cuomo’s nursing home order and it’s deadly results were first reported.
No. Her timing is, shall we say, suspect.
But this coordinated Cuomo hit job goes far beyond Tish’s own political ambitions.
Would the news media work in concert to help Letitia James defeat Cuomo in a gubernatorial primary?
Highly unlikely.
James simply does not have that kind of political muscle or influence.
Hell, do a random “man-on-the-street” poll and ask New Yorkers who the State Attorney General is, and I’m guessing 99.4% of them wouldn’t be able to tell you.
The other 0.6% are those related to or friends of Letitia James.
So why this abrupt turnaround?
Why would Democrats and major news corporations join in on the Cuomo hit job – especially after spending eleven months turning him into a rock star?
And what (or who) is behind it?
I’ve given this a lot of thought over the last week. And I suspect that this coordinated hit job isn’t about getting Cuomo out of the Governor’s office. It’s about keeping him out of the 2024 Presidential race.
Remember when it was reported that Biden’s number one choice for Attorney General was Andrew Cuomo? Cuomo was still a rock star at the time, and the media was over the moon at the thought of it.
But Cuomo flat-out dismissed the idea.
If I had to guess, I’d say Andrew put the kibosh on joining the Biden Administration for two reasons.
First, he like’s being the big fish in a small pond. Why play back-up dancer to a dementia-addled President when you can rule your own fiefdom?
The other reason is ambition. I have no doubt Cuomo, still enjoying the high from all the sycophantic praise over his masterful handling of COVID (*eyeroll*), is absolutely planning to run for President in 2024.
Biden won’t be running for reelection – either because he chooses not to (since he’d be 82 at the start of a second term) or because he won’t be President anymore by the time the 2024 primary season begins.
Cuomo knows that.
He knows the Democrat nomination will be up for grabs. And, by God, he’s going to grab it with gusto.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris most certainly will be running in 2024 – either as the appointed incumbent or as the sitting VP of a retiring President.
And the people calling the shots in the Biden/Harris Administration do not want the powerful, headstrong Cuomo primarying the malleable and cooperative Kamala.
Understand, Kamala Harris isn’t the real power behind Joe Biden. Neither Biden nor Harris are calling the shots in this Administration. Both Biden and Harris are merely figureheads for those who are actually running the executive branch.
Andrew Cuomo would never be satisfied being a figurehead. He is far too arrogant, micromanaging, imperious and self-important to settle for that role. He would not be malleable or cooperative. And those in charge of the current administration would not be calling the shots in a Cuomo Administration — even if they kept their jobs.
So Cuomo’s political career has to be destroyed.
Sure propping him up was a net positive when Donald Trump needed to be defeated.
But not now – not when the politician he poses a threat to is a malleable, cooperative Democrat.
This is about getting rid of the competition.
All the slobbering praise for the “LuvGuv” was generating far too much hype for a Cuomo run in 2024. And that just cannot happen.
Kamala has as big of an ego as Andrew Cuomo to be sure.
The difference, however, is Kamala is so ill-prepared and such a lightweight that she could not possibly become a threat to those who really control the levers of power in DC.
In a word, she’s pliant.
She could never dream of achieving this level of power on her own. So she is more than happy to simply play the role of leader while others in the background actually lead.
Andrew Cuomo would never play along with that kind of scenario.
So he has to be neutralized – his media-created reputation as a great leader must be utterly destroyed by the very media that created it.
The shift from media fawning to media hit job was far too abrupt to be organic.
It’s a strategy.
It has to be.
They need this guy out of the way in plenty of time to ensure that the new narrative – namely Cuomo the Corrupt Killer of the Elderly – is so deeply ingrained in the minds of Democrat voters that none of them would even dream of supporting him in the primaries.
And I think it will very likely work.