COWARDLY CUOMO’S CAPITULATIONS & CLOSED CONFERENCES
BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
Cowardly Cuomo’s Capitulations & Closed Conferences By Patrick McAuliffe
D
espite my own southern European heritage and the continuation of the Gagliano dynasty (congrats on being elected EIC for next year, Matt), Binghamton Review is not a safe space for Italian people. More specifically, the Review is not a safe space for one Italian man. My animosity for Governor Andrew Cuomo is old news, but the news on Big Fredo seems to change every day. He continues to be hostile to the press in new and impressive, albeit cowardly, ways; he likes to invent pissing contests with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio; he stands his ground and denies any wrongdoing in the THREE separate investigations into his administration and conduct. What is simultaneously disgusting and relieving is that, as the walls close around him and his executive powers are subject to ever-growing oversight, Cuomo is lifting many of New York’s COVID restrictions, such as on the capacity of buildings and nighttime curfews. A broken, gaudy Rolex is right twice a day, and even though the Italian Stallion is finally coming around to matching the mandate policies of other, much freer states, his self-centered reasons for doing so are all too apparent. I’ll begin with a story, a tale of euphoric excitement that ultimately ended in tragic disappointment. On April 27th, at 12:09pm, the Governor’s office put out a press release, stating that he would be giving a speech at the Binghamton University Foundation on Gannett Street in Johnson City. The problem with this press release is that it listed the speech as happening an hour from when it was released (1:30pm), and over two hours from where the Governor had traditionally been giving his press briefings in Albany. The event was closed to the press, consistent with his weeks-long policy for previous press conferences after questions about his sexual harassment allegations have gained steam. I was Doordashing at the time, and upon seeing the press release on
12
BINGHAMTON REVIEW
Capitol reporter Zach Williams’ Twitter, I was elated. I had no intention to cause trouble or heckle the Governor, but I suppose I wanted two things: to see whether Big Fredo would allow a lowly citizen of his own state to attend his speech, despite forbidding members of the press; and to see whether his apparent charisma carried over in person, instead of through my small phone-sized window into his near-daily proclamations. Nervous and excited, I parked my car at the park next to the Johnson City Walmart and approached the building. Right away, I clocked four police SUVs, two of which were UPD cars. The parking lot was almost entirely blocked by cones, which supported a “DO NOT ENTER” sign. I crossed the street and walked around the parking lot side of the building for a bit, trying to find a public entrance (the normal BU Foundation front doors read “Entrance for Employees Only”). A woman in full desert camo walked into the building as I approached, and she ended up standing behind Cuomo during his speech. After inspecting the building to no avail (and seeing another
State Trooper car further in the lot), I went to leave the parking lot and asked a UPD cop stationed in his car at the entrance if the Governor’s speech was open to the public. He was unsure but hypothesized that, since “they” (meaning UPD) were all there, it probably was a closed event. I thanked him and, as I left, a black Cadillac SUV driven by a man in a suit pulled in front of the cones. Neither the cop nor the SUV driver talked to me further, and I left in my own car with the same feelings one will often feel after leaving the Johnson City Walmart: disappointment, and sadness for the experience that one just had. To be fair, I didn’t identify myself as a member of the student press corps at BU, despite my lack of identification that would back that up. It didn’t appear to be a press conference-style event, however, judging from what the local news stations live-streamed at 1:30pm. Cuomo announced that all state-run vaccination sites would now permit walk-in vaccinations for everyone ages 16 and up, and tried to reason with (while, admittedly, strawmanning) those that are vaccine-hesitant. The speech was just another opportunity for Big Fredo to project his strength, with military personnel and people in scrubs standing behind him, and lay into the help that the SUNY system provides the state in its continuing vaccination effort. He didn’t totally fool the Albany media, however, as Bernadette Hogan from the New York Post was able to make it down to Binghamton in time to ask for Cuomo’s comments on his current scandal-ridden administration after the speech. According to the Washington Post, this is not the first time this has happened recently, nor is it something totally unexpected for the Albany-based press corps. Cuomo hasn’t been taking questions from the media in recent weeks, as he probably grew tired of the badgering about his sexual
Vol. XXXIII, Issue XII
