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How Cuomo, Once on Sidelines, Became the Politician of the Moment

March 24, 2020

By Jesse McKinley and Shane Goldmacher

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo awoke before dawn on Tuesday, emerging after a few hours' sleep to board a helicopter to New York City for the coronavirus briefing that has become a daily ritual for him and for the millions of people now watching.

But this event would be different. The outbreak was moving faster than he had expected, with the number of confirmed cases doubling every three days, and he decided he needed to show people — including the White House — how desperate the situation had become.

"You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?" the governor said, referring to a recent federal government shipment to New York.

"What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?" he said later. "You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators."

The governor repeatedly assailed the federal response as slow, inefficient and inadequate, far more aggressively than he had before.

Mr. Cuomo was once considered a bit player on the national stage, an abrasive presence who made his share of enemies among his Democratic Party peers. He was too much of a pragmatist for his party's progressive wing, too self-focused for party leaders and too brusque for nearly everyone.

But now, he is emerging as the party's most prominent voice in a time of crisis.

His briefings — articulate, consistent and often tinged with empathy — have become must-see television. On Tuesday, his address was carried live on all four networks in New York and a raft of cable news stations, including CNN, MSNBC and even Fox News.

In a sign of the way Mr. Cuomo has become the face of the Democratic Party in this moment, his address even pre-empted an appearance by former Vice President Joseph Biden on ABC's "The View" in New York.

Mr. Cuomo's handling of the crisis has fostered a nationwide following; Mr. Biden called Mr. Cuomo's briefings a "lesson in leadership," and others have described them as communal therapy sessions. The same blunt and sometimes paternalistic traits that have long rubbed his critics raw have morphed into a source of comfort.

The governor's actions have not always been at the forefront: He waited several days last week, as the count of confirmed cases continued to rise, before instituting an order to close nonessential businesses and ask residents to stay at home, even as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California had already done so.

The question of whether to enact a shelter-in-place edict degenerated into a semantics debate with Mayor Bill de Blasio, resurfacing a petty feud between the two New York Democrats.

Mr. Cuomo also changed course — within the span of a Sunday afternoon — deciding to close New York City's schools hours after casting doubt on such a plan.

Still, Mr. Cuomo's daily addresses have stood in stark contrast to the sometimes contradictory pronouncements coming from Washington.

Mr. Cuomo's briefings have been filled with facts, directives and sobering trends: On Tuesday, the governor disclosed that the number of positive cases in New York had risen past 25,000, and that the state now projects it will need up to 140,000 hospital beds to house virus patients.

There were also signs that Washington was listening: after Mr. Cuomo spoke on Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence said 2,000 ventilators were being sent to New York, with a promise of 2,000 more on Wednesday.

Mr. Cuomo's explanation for his popularity is simple. "I'm not doing anything different than I have ever done," the governor said in an interview on Monday. "It's just a bigger audience. And it's a more intense time."

That fire was evident on Tuesday, as he disparaged a remark by Texas's lieutenant governor that older residents might not mind dying to save the economy.

"My mother's not expendable," Mr. Cuomo said, adding, "We're not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable. And we're not going to put a dollar figure on human life."

Since the crisis began to take shape, the governor's aggressive posture has won compliments from admirers ranging from conservative pundits like Sean Hannity, who recently hosted Mr. Cuomo on his radio show, to the progressive comedian Chelsea Handler ("I'm officially attracted to Andrew Cuomo").

Even President Trump has taken notice: His team has scheduled his appearances in the afternoon so as not to interfere with Mr. Cuomo's briefings, including on Tuesday, when the president's town hall event on Fox News began after the governor's briefing ended.