"He's Walking the Line": Inside Andrew Cuomo's Psychological Game With Trump

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/inside-andrew-cuomos-psychological-game-with-trump#intcid=recommendations_default-popular_b2b456dc-747d-459d-be98-137866c752f5_popular4-1


“He’s Walking the Line”: Inside Andrew Cuomo’s Psychological Game With Trump
It’s a life-or-death struggle—and playing out in dueling press conferences. “One-on-one, it’s perfectly cordial with Trump,” says a person who knows both men. “Because the show isn’t on.”
By Chris Smith

snip//

The governor has made his daily public briefings an essential part of the current dynamic, and he’s used them to alternately pressure and stroke Trump. These performances are also highly condensed versions of the protean personality New York has seen in action for four decades, dating back to the 25-year-old Cuomo’s days managing his father’s first campaign for governor. Cuomo can be manipulative, Machiavellian, and vindictive. David Paterson, when he was Cuomo’s predecessor as New York governor, once described feeling as if Cuomo was skulking under the floorboards of the executive mansion, holding a saw. He has also passed pioneering progressive legislation on same-sex marriage (for) and assault weapons (against).

But the immediate Cuomo moment is more about psychology than policy. The forcefulness and passion that have been on daily display for the past month during Cuomo’s virtuous press conferences are the products of his very complicated upbringing as the eldest child of Matilda and Mario Cuomo, who was also a three-term governor of New York. A thorough treatment of those familial relationships would require a book. The very short version, what is most relevant right now, is that Cuomo actually cares about people and has a deep understanding of the human condition.

That quality, on top of his knowledge of how government works, has helped Cuomo create an image of reassuring leadership during the past month. Cuomo does not shy from the grim statistics in his daily briefings, but he has also dialed up his folksy side—talking at length about the Italian American Sunday family dinners of his childhood and about his worries for his elderly mother during the pandemic. “People don't want to hear a well-crafted speech that’s quoting Lincoln at this moment,” says Jen Psaki, who was a top advisor to President Barack Obama. “They want to hear someone who is capturing their frustration and demanding better. Cuomo has been simultaneously not taking Trump’s bait and calling bullshit when it’s warranted. That is relatable for people, because it doesn’t feel political.”

For all the sincerity of Cuomo’s public emoting about his mother and his daughters and his brother, Chris Cuomo, the CNN host, the governor is acutely aware of the stagecraft involved, and that Trump is watching closely. Cuomo believes in a fundamental rule of politics: that it’s easier to get what you want if you can give the person on the other side of the table a win too. And he’s clearly keeping that idea in mind now. Trump, for all his bluster, knows he’s in deep trouble. So Cuomo, who needs money and medical supplies from the federal government, doles out restrained thanks to Trump for cooperation whenever possible, even as he’s no doubt conscious that any such statements will likely appear in Trump reelection ads. “I don’t think the governor is thinking about that right now,” a Cuomo colleague says. “He is a responsible chief executive of a state, trying to get through the day and then the next week and then the next month.”

Cuomo has tangled with plenty of venal or bullying politicians before. What’s different this time around is that he’s contending with an amoral player who outranks him. Part of what makes Trump unpredictable is that he has never had any core values, other than ego gratification. Cuomo, by contrast—as tough and cynical as he can be—has a soul. In the governor’s life-or-death dealings with the president, that could turn out to be Cuomo’s most powerful asset.

[S.E. TN Liberal]

1. The orange turd listens to his septic gut...

...Cuomo uses his brain.

[bluescribbler]

10. He also uses his heart,

Something which the pResident is sorely lacking.

[FarPoint]

2. He does not agitate the snake....

He will do what it takes, like a psyche nurse working with an Alzheimer's client or a psyche patient...it is the end result as the goal...He is doing whatever it takes to save lives. He essentially is showing America how to save lives in this process...

I don't know which is worse...Trump or COVID...

[2naSalit]

3. Well, he's also known turdblossomface for a long time too.

Gov. Cuomo is intelligent and he knows what makes the orange one tick.

[crickets]

4. Good read. Cuomo puts trump to shame. - K&R for visibility.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Each day I wait to read the print out of Cuomo's

updates,and then the next morning on can kind of predict what the Orange Anus's daily Campaign Rallies Main Talking point is going to be. Of Course we know how that ends,just more personal stroking and blaming others.

Cuomo is setting the Orange Anus for a major train wreck which he will never see until some one clues him in.

[babylonsister]

7. Cuomo doesn't have to do that; the dolt is doing it all by himself.

Cuomo is actually working.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. Not yet,

Cuomo is playing Ali's Rope a Dope with this Narcissistic ass. We are just seeing the early round or two. The Orange Anus and crew of not for prime time boobs have not seen the real show yet.

[Hekate]

6. "He has a soul." This is an excellent read. Thanks.

[Kaiserguy]

8. While Trump has a dark empty

space instead of a soul

[GusBob]

11. AL Franklin's podcast today with a Dr was about this

How a public servant has to balance public health with political stuff
Franken kept pushing her: Trumps a sick sick he lies. Binkx is a toady
I wish I could remember her name she patiently explained to Mr Franklin: no this is what you have to do, get your message across balance public health with your boss
Frankin to his credit backed off and said I get it