Mr. Hoffman is an associate editor of the New York Sun, where he covers politics and culture. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and a law degree from Stanford University.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from wo R now the wo
R Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry Minty. Good morning and
welcome to Saturday Morning. On this week's show, leading New
York mayoral candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo may get
hit with federal charges for lying to Congress about nursing
(00:21):
home deaths during the COVID nineteen pandemic. Aary Hoffman, associate
editor of The New York Sun, has the details. The
Sun and you covered this case extensively.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Sure, absolutely, and it's great to be with you, Aarry.
You know, this is now the second high profile criminal
referral we've seen in the past couple of weeks. The
last one, of course, I think we spoke about it
on this program was Letitia James and a referral coming
in about her real estate dealings, let's put it. And
(00:57):
now we have another. One has to do with Governor Cuomo.
It comes as more and more polling is showing him
with a pretty strong position ahead of the Democratic primary
in June. But this one, as you said, has a
little bit of a backstory, uh, and maybe some some
(01:18):
legs to it, you know. The difference here as opposed
to the one against Tis James. The referral I mean
is that this one comes from a member of Congress,
right from a Congressional committee, as opposed to the executive
branch itself. But in either way it's the same. Right,
the d o J gets criminal referrals, it's charged with
(01:38):
evaluating them. As you mentioned. Crucially, of course, is is
who the Attorney General is. Uh, this referral was was
made last year and was buried or nothing happened with it,
or it was put in a circular file, and you know,
maybe maybe we'll see we'll see some more action this time.
At issue is whether Governor Clomo pertrick himself in front
(02:02):
of Congress when he denied interfering with a report about
about COVID evidence, and in the form of handwritten notes
and other kind of documentation seems to suggest he was
involved with that report.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It is like he wrote the report. If you look
at it, looks like he wrote the report himself.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Sure, sure, it rising a little bit. You know when
you know a kid has a report at school and
you see the parents handwriting all over it was and
at at Globo at Coloba acknowledged that the handwriting did
appear to be his So you know, I think that
strange credulity to imagine that he was that he was not. Remember,
(02:53):
this report was supposed to be objective, right, it was
supposed to be an independent report. So you know there's
this this sort of you know, he got getting caught
with his hands in the cookie jar when it comes
to writing the report. And then and then what what
will be the consequences? What will the OJ do? Right?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I think there's no question he lied to Congress. I
think they have him dead to rights on this. The
question is how will affect him politically because in this
strange climate, especially in New York City where Eric Adams
who works with the Trump administration to take dangerous criminals
off the streets, and that's a bad thing because Donald
(03:35):
Trump's involved. So if Donald Trump goes after Andrew Cuomo
in New York City, does that hurt him?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, this is a great point, Larry, and you know,
well we've seen the the other way. We've seen Kiss
James profit off of confrontation with Trump. Right, the idea
of running against Trump is is an age old crutch
for would be office holders in New York State. Uh,
and campaigning on that. On the other hand, we saw.
(04:03):
I think Trump benefit politically from the Alvin Bragg case,
which many found unconvincing and frivolous. And in fact, you
can date his meteoric rise in the Republican primary to
the handing handing up of charges and then the conviction
in that case. So there's no doubt that there's a
(04:23):
political payoff for for sort of these legal machinations. You know,
I think that's absolutely the case. I think Culomo is,
you know, we'll see this as maybe an easy way
to cover his left flank, right. I mean, it's he
can kind of run against Trump with with no with
no downside. But as you mentioned, Larry, I mean, the
(04:46):
idea that Adams and Trump we were collaborating has so
damaged Adams that he had to that he's running as
an independent. Right. It made him unviable as a candidate
Democratic cribrary.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Which Cuomo is pretty upset about apparently, and it came
up at Mayor Adam's news conference yesterday where Cuoma as
saying that, you know, he's hurting the Democratic Party, he's
hurting the moderate cause, if there is such a thing,
and that because he's running, he might put a liberal
into office and if you saw the news conference, Mayor
(05:21):
Adam is way off on that. No, he was, he
was indignant that that was even coming up. But to
talk about that for a second, we're running out of
time a little bit. But talk about that for a second,
because because four people in the race gives really everybody
in running a chance.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You know, it's think of those big highways. There are
a lot of lanes here, you know. And and we'll
see how they converge. I think Cloma will sort of
certainly make Hay out of this and say, you know,
the Trump administration is worried about me. You know, I'm
the big dog. They're going after me, and you know,
and and and I'll sort of I can, I can
(06:03):
take them on. But you know, I think that these
New York politicians have to watch watch themselves here. You know,
we clearly have an administration that has its eye on
them in a way that hasn't been the case for
the past four years. And whether it's you know, visa,
the immigration, whether it's where these potential criminal charges, you know,
we'll see, we'll see kind of what percolates over the
(06:24):
next few months. But there's no doubt that Pam Bondy
has her eye on New York.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, I got a feeling there's no doubt there is
going to be charges, but it's going to be fascinating
to see how that plays politically. And I hope you'll
come back to talk about that another time. Harry would
love to Ry Hoffman from The New York Sun. This
has been a podcast from wo R
This is a podcast from wo R now the wo
R Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry Minty. Good morning and
welcome to Saturday Morning. On this week's show, leading New
York mayoral candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo may get
hit with federal charges for lying to Congress about nursing
(00:21):
home deaths during the COVID nineteen pandemic. Aary Hoffman, associate
editor of The New York Sun, has the details. The
Sun and you covered this case extensively.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Sure, absolutely, and it's great to be with you, Aarry.
You know, this is now the second high profile criminal
referral we've seen in the past couple of weeks. The
last one, of course, I think we spoke about it
on this program was Letitia James and a referral coming
in about her real estate dealings, let's put it. And
(00:57):
now we have another. One has to do with Governor Cuomo.
It comes as more and more polling is showing him
with a pretty strong position ahead of the Democratic primary
in June. But this one, as you said, has a
little bit of a backstory, uh, and maybe some some
(01:18):
legs to it, you know. The difference here as opposed
to the one against Tis James. The referral I mean
is that this one comes from a member of Congress,
right from a Congressional committee, as opposed to the executive
branch itself. But in either way it's the same. Right,
the d o J gets criminal referrals, it's charged with
(01:38):
evaluating them. As you mentioned. Crucially, of course, is is
who the Attorney General is. Uh, this referral was was
made last year and was buried or nothing happened with it,
or it was put in a circular file, and you know,
maybe maybe we'll see we'll see some more action this time.
At issue is whether Governor Clomo pertrick himself in front
(02:02):
of Congress when he denied interfering with a report about
about COVID evidence, and in the form of handwritten notes
and other kind of documentation seems to suggest he was
involved with that report.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It is like he wrote the report. If you look
at it, looks like he wrote the report himself.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Sure, sure, it rising a little bit. You know when
you know a kid has a report at school and
you see the parents handwriting all over it was and
at at Globo at Coloba acknowledged that the handwriting did
appear to be his So you know, I think that
strange credulity to imagine that he was that he was not. Remember,
(02:53):
this report was supposed to be objective, right, it was
supposed to be an independent report. So you know there's
this this sort of you know, he got getting caught
with his hands in the cookie jar when it comes
to writing the report. And then and then what what
will be the consequences? What will the OJ do? Right?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I think there's no question he lied to Congress. I
think they have him dead to rights on this. The
question is how will affect him politically because in this
strange climate, especially in New York City where Eric Adams
who works with the Trump administration to take dangerous criminals
off the streets, and that's a bad thing because Donald
(03:35):
Trump's involved. So if Donald Trump goes after Andrew Cuomo
in New York City, does that hurt him?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, this is a great point, Larry, and you know,
well we've seen the the other way. We've seen Kiss
James profit off of confrontation with Trump. Right, the idea
of running against Trump is is an age old crutch
for would be office holders in New York State. Uh,
and campaigning on that. On the other hand, we saw.
(04:03):
I think Trump benefit politically from the Alvin Bragg case,
which many found unconvincing and frivolous. And in fact, you
can date his meteoric rise in the Republican primary to
the handing handing up of charges and then the conviction
in that case. So there's no doubt that there's a
(04:23):
political payoff for for sort of these legal machinations. You know,
I think that's absolutely the case. I think Culomo is,
you know, we'll see this as maybe an easy way
to cover his left flank, right. I mean, it's he
can kind of run against Trump with with no with
no downside. But as you mentioned, Larry, I mean, the
(04:46):
idea that Adams and Trump we were collaborating has so
damaged Adams that he had to that he's running as
an independent. Right. It made him unviable as a candidate
Democratic cribrary.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Which Cuomo is pretty upset about apparently, and it came
up at Mayor Adam's news conference yesterday where Cuoma as
saying that, you know, he's hurting the Democratic Party, he's
hurting the moderate cause, if there is such a thing,
and that because he's running, he might put a liberal
into office and if you saw the news conference, Mayor
(05:21):
Adam is way off on that. No, he was, he
was indignant that that was even coming up. But to
talk about that for a second, we're running out of
time a little bit. But talk about that for a second,
because because four people in the race gives really everybody
in running a chance.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You know, it's think of those big highways. There are
a lot of lanes here, you know. And and we'll
see how they converge. I think Cloma will sort of
certainly make Hay out of this and say, you know,
the Trump administration is worried about me. You know, I'm
the big dog. They're going after me, and you know,
and and and I'll sort of I can, I can
(06:03):
take them on. But you know, I think that these
New York politicians have to watch watch themselves here. You know,
we clearly have an administration that has its eye on
them in a way that hasn't been the case for
the past four years. And whether it's you know, visa,
the immigration, whether it's where these potential criminal charges, you know,
we'll see, we'll see kind of what percolates over the
(06:24):
next few months. But there's no doubt that Pam Bondy
has her eye on New York.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, I got a feeling there's no doubt there is
going to be charges, but it's going to be fascinating
to see how that plays politically. And I hope you'll
come back to talk about that another time. Harry would
love to Ry Hoffman from The New York Sun. This
has been a podcast from wo R
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