Reporters asked Governor Andrew Cuomo if he happened to be the familiar-sounding “Cuomo administration official” saying mean things about de Blasio to The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News this week. “I said a lot of things yesterday,” he replied. “I don’t know exactly which one you’re referring to.” When asked why he would ever criticize the mayor anonymously, Cuomo added, “Sometimes it’s a little faster to talk off-the-record, as you know.” De Blasio, who also happened to be giving a press conference at that moment, was asked for comment. The de Blasio administration official said, after being whisked off stage several times for quick briefings with aides, “We are focused right now on policy … that’s where my focus will remain.”
No one asked Cuomo if he would try a new, improved disguise next time he needed to complain about a fellow politician — maybe “Albany person” or “guy you definitely haven’t heard of close to the governor” or “escaped-convict expert.” Former representative Anthony Weiner recommends, “an official so senior in the Cuomo administration that he literally can’t be fired.”
