The failure of the Amazon HQ2 deal in New York is the “greatest tragedy” since at least 1982, a distraught Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared Friday.
He might be right, so long as you ignore all the terrorist attacks and mass shootings.
“What happened is the greatest tragedy that I have seen since I have been in government,” Cuomo said in a radio interview.
He also said he felt “sick to his stomach” last week after the online retailer announced it would no longer build part of its second headquarters in the Big Apple, taking with it an estimated 25,000 jobs.
The governor added in reference to the state and municipal leaders who opposed the Amazon deal, “what happened here is a number of factors, but primary the state Senate made the misguided decision in my opinion, which I think is now clear to all, to treat Amazon as a local political issue and defer the decision making to the local political senator who they also appointed to the governmental board who had to approve the project.”
I understand politicians need to inject a bit of hyperbole every now and then to sell their message, but characterizing the botched Amazon HQ2 deal as the “greatest tragedy” since Cuomo started working in politics roughly four decades ago is a bit much.
Cuomo’s first real gig in politics was in 1982, when he served as the campaign manager to his father’s gubernatorial campaign. He would go on to bounce between the private and public sector, serving first in various state government roles, including as the New York assistant district attorney and chairman of the New York City Homeless Commission. In 1993, Cuomo joined the Clinton administration as assistant secretary for Community Planning and Development for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cuomo went on to serve later as secretary of HUD. He held that position until January 2001. After serving in HUD, Cuomo ran in 2002 for New York governor. He lost. Cuomo ran for state attorney general in 2006 and won. He used that as a stepping stone for another gubernatorial run in 2010, and won. He has been New York governor ever since.
In all the time that Cuomo has been in and out of state and federal politics, there have been a number of events that I’d say qualify as far, far, far more tragic than New York losing the Amazon HQ2 deal.
There’s the 1984 Palm Sunday massacre (10 murdered), the 1993 Long Island Rail Road mass shooting (six dead, 19 injured), the 2000 Wendy’s massacre in Queens (five dead, two injured), the 2009 Binghamton mass shooting (13 murdered, four injured), and the 2012 Webster shooting (two murdered, three injured).
Just two years ago in New York City, a terrorist vehicle-ramming attack left eight people dead and 15 seriously injured. Earlier, in 2014, a gunman murdered to NYPD officers in retaliation for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. There are the Sept. 11 attacks, of course, though Cuomo wasn’t a government official at the time.
These are examples from just the Empire State! There are 49 other states available for comment.
Funnily enough, Cuomo’s office tried to walk back his remarks Friday, claiming he meant “government failure, not human tragedies.” Fine. Let’s say that’s what Cuomo really meant. He still looks like a fool, even with this clarification.
To say the Amazon HQ2 deal is the “greatest government failure” since Cuomo got into the game roughly 35 years ago would require elevating it above other far more tragic government failures, including Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial collapse, basically anything involving the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, the AIDS epidemic, and the 1993 torching of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, which left 76 people dead.
I understand Cuomo is frustrated that Amazon abandoned New York City even after he offered the online retailer the moon and the stars, but maybe try a little perspective, governor.
