Its press conferences are now a daily meeting. It reassures, explains, stuck in the crisis due to the Covid-19 epidemic. His advice is followed carefully. No, this is not Donald Trump and his endless White House conferences, but the Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo.
From the state capital, Albany, 250 kilometers north of Manhattan, this 62-year-old Democrat acts as the father of New Yorkers. Closure of schools against the advice of the mayor of Big Apple, emergency orders of artificial respirators for hospitals, ban on gatherings of more than fifty people, suspension of evictions and postponement of mortgage terms: the real boss is is it, as in all American states in the event of a major crisis.
It is found in New York State, 20 million people and the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, with 15,168 cases and 114 deaths. Since the evening of Sunday March 22, all non-essential activities have been prohibited, but Mr. Cuomo, governor of the state since 2011, has given up confining New Yorkers by sheltering them. "Shelter", this word had been suggested by the impetuous mayor Bill de Blasio: it is used when there is a killer in the streets and formerly, in the event of an atomic alert. Too alarmist for Mr. Cuomo, who prefers pedagogy and persuasion.
To this end, the governor arrived Thursday March 19 at a press conference flanked by his daughter Michaela, 22 years old. Objective, to convince millennials, during this spring vacation period, to stop doing anything: persuaded that the disease caused by the coronavirus is for them mild, they are celebrating in Florida, the preferred destination of New Yorkers, spreading the virus. "My daughter, you know, she is everything to me", said Mr. Cuomo, explaining his dismay, this inability to get the message out to the youngest, unlike his daughter who canceled her vacation: "Fortunately, she made the right decision and I am proud of her. "
Sweet sour exchanges between the governor and Donald Trump
Politics is a bit of a family affair. The Catholic Andrew Cuomo is the eldest son of Mario Cuomo (1932-2015), son of Italian grocers born in Queens and became Democratic Governor of New York between 1983 and 1994. Andrew was his political adviser in the early 1980s before becoming Bill Clinton's housing secretary in the late 1990s.
