Andrew Cuomo made Trump look bad. Now, maybe we'll see the governor for what he really is.

Jon Gabriel, Opinion contributor
·4 min read

Andrew Cuomo was never known as a news media sweetheart. In his decade as New York’s governor, he was considered a bully, a braggart and the chief cog in the corrupt Albany machine. COVID-19 changed all that.

The state was ravaged by the novel coronavirus, but the governor’s daily pressers won over a swooning media. His brother, Chris, regularly featured him on his prime-time CNN show where sibling rivalry jokes degenerated into prop comedy.

Pop culture also fell in love. Talk show hosts Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah outed themselves as “Cuomosexuals.” The governor wrote a bestseller mid-pandemic and won an Emmy for his televised briefings. Cuomo’s legendary journalist bashing was hardly mentioned.

It’s not as if the governor became lovable or competent in March 2020. He was just a convenient tool to bludgeon a president whom the news and entertainment worlds despised. If Cuomo looked good, then Donald Trump would look bad. The fact they both were problematic was beside the point.

Cuomo was a useful idiot to foil Trump

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in May 2020.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in May 2020.

The governor’s months-old decision to force COVID-positive patients into nursing homes, then cover it up, finally earned front-page treatment. Endless allegations of sexual impropriety now threaten his political office.

Cuomo must be confused at the sudden reversal of fortune. He shouldn’t be. The useful idiots aren’t useful anymore.

A cadre of hacks, cranks and grifters were lionized over the past four years, not because they were brilliant or honest, but because they made Trump look bad by comparison. Trump’s Twitter feed already made Trump look bad, but cable news bookers need guests.

COVID nursing home deaths: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is running from his part in my dad's death

Michael Avenatti played the useful idiot for the first couple of years as attorney to Stormy Daniels, deploying Trumpian rhetoric to serve the resistance. Incivility is good when our side does it. One glance at the creepy lawyer screamed “ambulance chaser,” but ratings are ratings.

Avenatti was later arrested over an alleged $25 million extortion scheme, and Team Resist memory-holed him in a flash. It’s tough to condemn a president’s criminality when you’re the guy raising bail money.

There were many more useful idiots

A motley assortment of shady characters was ready to take his place. With Avenatti headed to the hoosegow, The Lincoln Project saw an opportunity: Finally, out-of-work Republican political consultants could bilk Democrats for a change. John Weaver, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and others made Avenatti — and even Trump — sound like choirboys.

Their anti-Trump antics earned them millions in donations that they dutifully funneled to their various privately owned firms. That the Lincoln Project’s ads made wavering Republicans more likely to support Trump wasn’t a concern. Their main goal was more donations and, in that, they succeeded.

Janice Dean: COVID-19 killed my in-laws after Cuomo's reckless New York nursing home policy

Smart bandits would have fled town the first Wednesday of November before the posse noticed that the bank vault was empty. Instead, the LP hung around until co-founder Weaver was outed as an alleged serial sexual abuser and the group’s financial self-dealing was exposed.

Once Trump left, they weren't needed

Avenatti, the Lincoln Project and now Cuomo all outlived their usefulness. Once Trump was gone, the media no longer needed to hide their manifest flaws.

The moral of the story is simple: The enemy of your enemy isn’t always your friend.

How many lives would have been saved if Cuomo’s deadly nursing home decision was criticized when he first considered it? How many more Democrats would have been elected if the Lincoln Project’s grift was exposed before Election Day? All those progressive donations could have gone to groups actually making a difference.

“If you gaze long enough into an abyss,” Nietzsche said, “the abyss will gaze back into you.”

Likewise, whoever fight Trumpism should see to it that they do not become a Trump themselves.

Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, where this column originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter: @exjon

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Andrew Cuomo made Trump look bad. With Trump gone, Cuomo's gig is up.

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