Andrew Cuomo Is the Wrong Voice Against Trump

In the aftermath of Donald Trump's election, many leaders have tried to stake their claim as leaders of the resistance to Trump, two of the most notable being Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Jerry Brown of California. Holding the Chief Executive office of the two most populous and most liberal states in the union earns you a pretty big microphone, and we expect the two men to wield them well over the next four years. But where Jerry Brown's career in politics is winding down, Cuomo is at least planning on another run for governor and has not denied aiming higher in 2020. But if we're looking for either a liberal lion or a principled statesman, we need to be looking elsewhere.

In his reelection effort in 2014, Cuomo won a primary against Zephyr Teachout by about 25 percentage points, a surprisingly close margin considering Teachout's status as a political neophyte against Cuomo's vast financial and political resources. After eventually gaining the support of the Working Families Party, Cuomo cruised in the general election with Green Howie Hawkins snagging only five percent of the vote. But he always had potential problems on the left flank of the Democratic party, and perceived slights of the Working Families Party in the aftermath of his reelection only made matters worse.

And then, in the midst of the 2016 Democratic primary, he signed into law a $15/hour minimum wage and invited Hillary Clinton to the celebration, simultaneously increasing his progressive credentials while snubbing the more progressive Bernie Sanders. That he would help Clinton was no great surprise; Cuomo was a Hillary Clinton surrogate back in 2008 when he embraced the worst kind of dog-whistle politics by accusing Barack Obama of "shuck and jive" campaigning, rendering this injection minuscule in comparison. What was surprising to many New Yorkers was that he supported the legislation in the first place.

And then came his letter, linked above, declaring his desire to "fight against the targeting of Muslims, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and for the rights of all Americans every day I hold office and every day after that." Since, he has even gone so far as to propose a plan for tuition-free college for low-to-middle-income New Yorkers, embracing the same Bernie Sanders who was left in the cold less than a year ago. While the exact mechanisms for his plans moving forward are unclear, his use of his microphone to speak about protecting those who need it most deserves plaudits.

But Cuomo is no saint of the progressive movement, and he proved it this weekend by vetoing bipartisan legislation aimed at improving legal representation for those who cannot afford it. Jezebel let him know what they thought of this decision with their headline, "Andrew Cuomo Is a Fucking Snake." The Southern Poverty Law Center went the more diplomatic, Constitution-minded route on Facebook, stating, "If you can't afford to provide people with lawyers, you can't afford to arrest them." But the idea is the same. How can a man who prevents the state from paying for legal services for the indigent turn around and call his state a "refuge" for those targeted by Donald Trump's policies?

To make matters worse, his record on ethics would make House Republicans blush. Donald Trump could take all of his "Crooked Hillary" tweets and recycle them four years down the road if "Crooked Cuomo" takes the Democratic nomination. And this time, he might actually have a point.

It's going to take a large coalition to oppose Donald Trump's policies, and I welcome Andrew Cuomo in that fight. I hope he takes his ethical obligations more seriously in the future, but I'm not holding my breath. But the battle against Trump must be about more than claiming opposition to a man. It must be about supporting the most vulnerable in our society, and until Andrew Cuomo supports adequate legal counsel for those most vulnerable, he has no business being celebrated by the rest of us.

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