Andrew Cuomo has a book out this week about his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, and with it comes a new round of reflection on his daily briefings at the height of New York’s crisis. The Wall Street Journal obtained an excerpt of American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, and as the paper points out, the book’s launch comes just as the governor has restored some restrictions in Brooklyn and Queens, where infection rates have recently spiked.
But infection rates haven’t previously impeded the governor’s sense of showmanship. In March and April, as the virus enacted the bulk of its toll in the state—up to almost 33,000 deaths now—Cuomo’s press conferences became a staple of news coverage. It may be a little fuzzy now, but at the time “New York tough” and PowerPoint presentations were a semi-regular feature of the state’s virus updates. Speculation about the governor’s nipples and dating life filled the tabloids. There was seemingly no limit placed on rounds of banter with Cuomo’s brother, the CNN anchor Chris, or reminders that he is Italian-American and hails from Queens. By the time Cuomo’s pandemic folk art (the sculpture, then the poster) emerged, the branding, however grating, was complete.
“This is a guy who knows he has a moment, and he’s not going to waste it,” a former city official told the New Yorker in a profile of Cuomo published on Monday.
As the magazine noted, Cuomo didn’t quite disappear after the crisis ebbed and he ended the briefings in June. He frequently appeared as a talk show guest, and was told by Chris one night, “I hope you are able to appreciate what you did in your state and what it means for the rest of the country now and what it will always mean to those who love and care about you the most.”
In a statement to the Journal, Cuomo said American Crisis isn’t a victory lap, but a guide to “learn the lesson from the first half of the game and play a better second half.”
American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic by Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo still seems to take some pride in the briefings. In an interview with New York published on Sunday, he explained some of the philosophy behind them. He acknowledged that the press would mock him for his personal touch (that’s true, although the tenor of coverage at the time appeared to tilt more towards admiration), but said that he could take it, and that he had to. “If they were going to mock my sense of humor or mock me for being weak because I expressed fear, so be it,” Cuomo told the magazine. “But if I didn’t connect, then people wouldn’t follow the policies and then the curve wouldn’t be flattened and then we’d have tens of thousands more people dead.”
In the interview, Cuomo also credited the widespread adoption of masks in New York to his press conferences. “That’s why the briefings were incredible,” he told New York. “How did that happen? People wanted information. They tuned in, and the communication was on a wholly different level. There was a sincerity and authenticity and a credibility that they discerned from the briefings. And they believed it.”
If it’s not a victory lap, it’s still a lot of credit to claim, especially as fears of a second coronavirus wave in New York begin to mount. But that’s the route Cuomo has taken throughout the pandemic, and although there are no longer press briefings to air, there’s still a book to sell.
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