I needed a call out of the blue from the governor of New York like I needed an invitation to a one-year-old’s birthday party. It was a Monday night, and I was inundated with work. His right-hand woman, Melissa de Rosa, gave me a two-minute heads-up before the “No Caller ID” popped onto my iPhone screen. It started with a cold call from him in the spring of 2018. You might be asking yourself why, a year to the day after Buttigieg’s exit from the presidential race, I found myself on a call not with Prince Charming but with the “Prince of Darkness,” the political insider’s nickname for Cuomo. In the moment, I meant it as much for him as for me. “But I just don’t see a way out of this.” “Governor, I’d like to disagree,” I told him.
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He’d led us down a path of defending him against claims of sexual harassment without giving us the full truth. The last several months had tested that loyalty, as it became increasingly clear that Cuomo wasn’t being straight with any of us - myself included. Want to read more stories like this? POLITICO Weekend delivers gripping reads, smart analysis and a bit of high-minded fun every Friday. He’d managed to get the unruly state legislature under control and achieve some big things. He’d also been a formidable governor - the likes of which New York hadn’t seen in decades. He always took the time to call staffers dealing with loss and personal hardships. Yes, he could be irrational and impetuous at times, but he matched that with a deep interpersonal warmth - showing up at weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs and funerals. While Cuomo was notoriously tough on staff, he engendered a remarkable amount of loyalty in the people around him. Now I was a part of his kitchen cabinet - the group of trusted, unofficial advisers - that he was relying on to help him weather the allegations of sexual harassment. I reconnected with him at the beginning of COVID’s onslaught on New York in March of 2020, when he’d call me for thoughts on his daily briefings.
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I’d had an on-off professional relationship with Cuomo for the past three years, starting with his 2018 campaign, where I served as spokesperson and ran his debate prep. Most recently, I’d served as a senior adviser on Pete Buttigieg’s against-all-odds presidential campaign, where he’d defied conventional wisdom, won the Iowa caucuses and become one of the Democratic Party’s biggest stars.
It had taken me 17 years - and 20 campaigns - to claw my way up the political ladder and go from a lowly field organizer to one of the top communications aides in the Democratic Party. He had a knack for finding people who could agree with even his worst instincts. He was looking for a sympathetic voice, as he often did on calls. “Lis,” Cuomo started in his halting, Queens-inflected cadence, “what do you think?”
“So, you’re telling me I don’t fight back? I don’t do a press conference? Why don’t I just resign then?” If I, a man, were accused of doing any of the things you were, I would be out of a job by now.” “It was more than touching a woman on the back. The adviser, someone not prone to hyperbole or challenging the governor unnecessarily, didn’t mince words. “It’s over because I touched a woman on the back?” Cuomo shot back, his voice rising with a pitched tone of panic. There is no path forward for you,” the adviser responded. That morning, the Attorney General of New York released a bombshell report that concluded that he’d broken state law by sexually harassing women staffers in his administration.
But on Augwhether he was willing to accept it or not - he was a dead man walking.
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