There were times during New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s press conference on Wednesday when you had to wonder whether he was trying to get himself held liable for sexual harassment.
His carefully crafted reputation for being a peerless communicator notwithstanding, Cuomo is prone to error, and worse, in these settings. That is what happens to even smart people who grow accustomed to fawning media coverage.
Without the wariness that comes from being challenged and badgered, things that aren’t true trip easily off their tongues, sometime because they’re lying, and other times because they don’t prepare well enough before taking questions. Cuomo is smooth enough that what he says usually sounds plausible in the moment, even if, upon reflection, it’s absurd. He figures, though, that there is no “upon reflection.”
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Top Democrats come to assume the press is there to clean up their messes, not subject their commentary to journalistic skepticism and follow-up investigation. When you get used to not being called on the nonsense you spout, you spout more nonsense.
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That is why Cuomo’s root problem is not sexual harassment. Nor is it cooking the books on nursing-home deaths. It is that the Left has turned on him. The guy who was born into Democratic prominence, married into Kennedy royalty, and was embraced by the Clintons, now has to sink or swim on his own. It’s not his strong suit.
The governor’s apology was duly emotive – he even effected getting choked up. But it hurts him legally. That price might be worth paying if the apology helped him politically. It won’t. Its insincerity was too transparent, its credibility further undermined by remarks that were, by turn, incoherent and laughable.
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