New York
They Pushed for Cuomo to Resign. Now They’re Clearing His Comeback Path.
Back in 2021, when Andrew M. Cuomo’s governorship was in free fall, the real estate developer Jeff Gural was clear about what he thought of the man: “He’s smart, but he’s a bully, and his tactics are a disgrace.”
Representative Ritchie Torres took a graver tone against Mr. Cuomo, declaring that New York was “no longer governable under his leadership” amid mounting sexual harassment claims.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a leading exponent of women’s rights, called the accusations “deeply, deeply troubling.” The remarks were part of a Democratic pile-on that helped force a reluctant Mr. Cuomo to resign.
How quickly things can change.
Not quite four years later, as Mr. Cuomo attempts a comeback as a candidate for mayor of New York City, the state’s powerful Democratic establishment now appears more interested in getting back in his good graces than in stopping him.
It is a striking about-face that may prove to be a defining feature of June’s Democratic primary. The born-again Cuomo supporters include elected officials, business titans and labor unions whose collective influence could push Mr. Cuomo to victory — whiplash be damned.
Mr. Gural recently donated $2,100 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign. Mr. Torres gave his blessing to “the resurrection of Andrew Cuomo” before he even entered the race. Representative Gregory W. Meeks, the Queens Democratic chairman, gave Mr. Cuomo the nod with little mention of his past criticism.
Powerful interest groups that helped end his governorship, like the Real Estate Board of New York and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, have indicated they may soon follow. Even Ms. Gillibrand made clear she does not intend to stand in the way.
“This is a country that believes in second chances,” she recently told NY1. “So it’s up to New York voters to decide if he should get a second chance to serve.”
The spate of election-season conversions undoubtedly reflects a broader cultural shift that has led voters and power brokers alike to reconsider the case of Mr. Cuomo, who denies wrongdoing. Others say that the threat posed by Washington, or the left, is too grave to elect anyone less experienced.
But privately, prominent New Yorkers are also engaging in far more transactional calculations. Many still loathe Mr. Cuomo. But they take notice of his polling lead and privately reason it is best not to be on the bad side of a notoriously vengeful leader who could have sway over zoning rules, labor contracts and more.
“Right now, the way the game is being played politically is that when you look to other people, you assess how their fortunes affect you,” said former Gov. David A. Paterson. “That is a display of power — not necessarily righteousness, not necessarily fairness.”
He added, “It really looks hypocritical.”
Mr. Paterson, who has remained neutral, compared it with the dynamic around President Trump, who managed to win back not only his voters but Republican leaders who tried to push him aside after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
There are notable holdouts. Eight Democrats are running against Mr. Cuomo in the primary, and Mayor Eric Adams remains in the race as an independent. They have support from politicians and civic leaders who say they cannot stomach Mr. Cuomo’s return.
A group of high-ranking Democrats, including the state attorney general, Letitia James, were so alarmed by a potential Cuomo return that they quietly tried to recruit a formidable moderate who could beat him. Ms. James even briefly considered doing it herself, but like the others, she passed and has largely restrained from attacking.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took office when Mr. Cuomo resigned in 2021, recently told reporters that she stood by her comments at the time, calling his actions “repulsive.” But, she concluded, “I have to deal with the reality today.”
Several prominent civic and political leaders were unwilling to criticize Mr. Cuomo on the record, citing his penchant for holding grudges and acting on them. One conceded to having done everything possible to try to undermine him — and failing.
All of it has left allies of the women whose accusations ended Mr. Cuomo’s governorship feeling betrayed and worried he could do damage if elected.
“The politicians who support him now will be responsible for the damage,” said Mariann Wang, a lawyer for Brittany Commisso, who accused Mr. Cuomo of groping her while she worked in his office. “They can’t say they weren’t warned.”
Mr. Cuomo denied harassing Ms. Commisso; the Albany sheriff’s office filed a criminal complaint, but prosecutors declined to press the case.
His return has been years in the making. He spent millions of dollars in taxpayer funds fighting to defang the sexual harassment claims and investigations related to his Covid-era policies. He assiduously courted former critics.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, said no one should be surprised by the groundswell of support for the former governor. He called him “the only person in this race with the proven track record of results to tackle” the city’s problems. He argued that time had allowed for “clarifying due process” for Mr. Cuomo to defend himself.
“Since the beginning, we said all of this was political and wasn’t going anywhere,” he said. “Four years later, that has all borne out.”
Some have been less receptive than others. Mr. Cuomo has been pushing, without luck, for a private meeting with Rupert Murdoch, the owner of The New York Post, to try to smooth a rocky relationship with the conservative tabloid, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The Post has hammered Mr. Cuomo daily.
Others are open-minded. Assemblyman Ron Kim was so disgusted by Mr. Cuomo’s attempt to conceal Covid-related deaths in nursing homes that he led a drive to impeach him. Their war of words — Mr. Kim said Mr. Cuomo threatened to “destroy” him — once consumed Albany.
But Mr. Kim now says he is willing to reconsider. “I’ve always been open to giving people a fair shot,” he said. “I want to see sitting across from him if he’s changed.”
Mr. Cuomo has also benefited from larger social and political shifts.
Laura Curran, the former Nassau County executive, said she felt tremendous pressure when claims against the governor first surfaced in spring 2021 “to jump on the bandwagon and do it fast.”
But after no legal charges were brought against Mr. Cuomo, she now views the whole case as “a nothingburger” that says more about the “cancel culture” that gripped her party than the former governor. She recently co-hosted a Cuomo fund-raiser with other women, and said having “a tough guy like Cuomo as the leader of New York City is a good thing” in the Trump era.
If anything, the bandwagon now appears to be pointed in the opposite direction.
“Any endorsement for him is predicated on a belief he’s going to win,” said John Samuelsen, whose Transport Workers Union has not taken sides. “It doesn’t have to be deeper than that to understand the rationale.”
Jay Jacobs, a former Cuomo ally who leads the New York Democratic Party, offered another theory: “Time cures a lot of stuff, and people’s memories are not as sharp,” he said. “That doesn’t make it right or wrong. That’s just the reality.”
Many have simply refused to discuss their transformations.
Mr. Torres told The Post that he was not interested in “relitigating” Mr. Cuomo’s resignation and did not respond to questions for this article. In any case, his early endorsement of Mr. Cuomo could prove useful if the congressman follows through on threats to run against Ms. Hochul in a primary next year.
Ms. Gillibrand’s carefully stated neutrality caught many Democrats by surprise, given her role helping to push Senator Al Franken of Minnesota from office in 2017 over allegations of unwanted touching and kissing. Her spokesman pointed to remarks in which she said it was up to voters to weigh Mr. Cuomo’s alleged misconduct against his accomplishments.
As for Mr. Gural, the real-estate developer, he said in an interview that he would have preferred Mr. Adams for another term. But he sounded ready to move past his attacks from 2021, when he told The Wall Street Journal that he donated to Mr. Cuomo because he felt pressure to. (The governor’s office said then that Mr. Gural was upset because his casinos had not gotten favorable treatment.)
“Andrew gets things done,” Mr. Gural said. “Everybody is looking at all the others as too left-wing.”
Benjamin Oreskes contributed reporting.
Every week since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has published stories by, and for, New Yorkers of all ages and eras (no matter where they live now): anecdotes and memories, quirky encounters and overheard snippets that reveal the city’s spirit and heart.
For the past four years, we’ve asked for your help picking the best Diary entry of the year. Now we’re asking again.
We’ve narrowed the field to the five finalists here. Read them and vote for your favorite. The author of the item that gets the most votes will receive a print of the illustration that accompanied it, signed by the artist, Agnes Lee.
The voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 21. You can change your vote as many times as you’d like until then, but you may only pick one. Choose wisely.
Click “VOTE” to choose your favorite Metropolitan Diary entry of 2025, and come back on Sunday, Dec. 28, to see which one our readers picked as their favorite.
Click “VOTE” to choose your favorite Metropolitan Diary entry of 2025, and come back on Sunday, Dec. 28, to see which one our readers picked as their favorite.
Two Stops
Dear Diary:
It was a drizzly June night in 2001. I was a young magazine editor and had just enjoyed what I thought was a very blissful second date — dinner, drinks, fabulous conversation — with our technology consultant at a restaurant in Manhattan.
I lived in Williamsburg at the time, and my date lived near Murray Hill, so we grabbed a cab and headed south on Second Avenue.
“Just let me out here,” my date said to the cabby at the corner of 25th Street.
We said our goodbyes, quick and shy, knowing that we would see each other at work the next day. I was giddy and probably grinning with happiness and hope.
“Oh boy,” the cabby said, shaking his head as we drove toward Brooklyn. “Very bad.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in horror.
“He doesn’t want you to know exactly where he lives,” the cabby said. “Not a good sign.”
I spent the rest of the cab ride in shock, revisiting every moment of the date.
Happily, it turned out that my instinct about it being a great date was right, and the cabby was wrong. Twenty-four years later, my date that night is my husband, and I know that if your stop is first, it’s polite to get out so the cab can continue in a straight line to the next stop.
Ferry Farewell
Dear Diary:
On a February afternoon, I met my cousins at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Their spouses and several of our very-grown children were there too. I brought Prosecco, a candle, a small speaker to play music, photos and a poem.
We were there to recreate the wedding cruise of my mother, Monica, and my stepfather, Peter. They had gotten married at City Hall in August 1984. She was 61, and he, 71. It was her first marriage, and his fourth.
I was my mother’s witness that day. It was a late-in-life love story, and they were very happy. Peter died in 1996, at 82. My mother died last year. She was 100.
Peter’s ashes had waited a long time, but finally they were mingled with Monica’s. The two of them would ride the ferry a last time and then swirl together in the harbor forever. Cue the candles, bubbly, bagpipes and poems.
Two ferry workers approached us. We knew we were in trouble: Open containers and open flames were not allowed on the ferry.
My cousin’s husband, whispering, told the workers what we were doing and said we would be finished soon.
They walked off, and then returned. They said they had spoken to the captain, and they ushered us to the stern for some privacy. As the cup of ashes flew into the water, the ferry horn sounded two long blasts.
Unacceptable
Dear Diary:
I went to a new bagel store in Brooklyn Heights with my son.
When it was my turn to order, I asked for a cinnamon raisin bagel with whitefish salad and a slice of red onion.
The man behind the counter looked up at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t do that.”
Teresa
Dear Diary:
It was February 2013. With a foot of snow expected, I left work early and drove from New Jersey warily as my wipers squeaked and snow and ice stuck to my windows.
I drove east on the Cross Bronx Expressway, which was tied up worse than usual. Trucks groaned on either side of my rattling Toyota. My fingers were cold. My toes were colder. Got to get home before it really comes down, I thought to myself.
By the time I got home to my little red bungalow a stone’s throw from the Throgs Neck Bridge, the snow was already up to my ankles.
Inside, I took off my gloves, hat, scarf, coat, sweater, pants and snow boots. The bed, still unmade, was inviting me. But first, I checked my messages.
There was one from Teresa, the 92-year-old widow on the corner.
“Call me,” she said, sounding desperate.
I looked toward the warm bed, but … Teresa. There was a storm outside, and she was alone.
On went the pants, the sweater, the coat, the scarf, the boots and the gloves, and then I went out the door.
The snow was six inches deep on the sidewalks, so I tottered on tire tracks in the middle of the street. The wind stung my face. When I got to the end of the block, I pounded on her door.
“Teresa!” I called. No answer. “Teresa!” I called again. I heard the TV blaring. Was she sprawled on the floor?
I went next door and called for Kathy.
“Teresa can’t answer the door,” I said. “Probably fell.”
Kathy had a key. In the corner of her neat living room, Teresa, in pink sweatpants and sweaters, was sitting curled in her armchair, head bent down and The Daily News in her lap.
I snapped off the TV.
Startled, she looked up.
“Kathy! Neal!” she said. “What’s a five-letter word for cabbage?”
Nice Place
Dear Diary:
When I lived in Park Slope over 20 years ago, I once had to call an ambulance because of a sudden, violent case of food poisoning.
Two paramedics, a man and a woman, entered our third-floor walk-up with a portable chair. Strapping me in, the male medic quickly inserted an IV line into my arm.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his partner circling around and admiring the apartment.
“Nice place you’ve got here.” she said. “Do you own it?”
“Yeah,” I muttered, all but unconscious.
Once I was in the ambulance, she returned to her line of inquiry.
“Do you mind me asking how much you paid for your apartment?”
“$155,000,” I croaked.
“Wow! You must have bought during the recession.”
“Yeah” I said.
They dropped me off at Methodist Hospital, where I was tended to by a nurse as I struggled to stay lucid.
At some point, the same medic poked her head into the room with one last question:
“You wouldn’t be wanting to sell any time soon, would you?”
Illustrations by Agnes Lee.
‘Part of the job’
Edwin Guity was at the controls of a southbound D train last December, rolling through the Bronx, when suddenly someone was on the tracks in front of him.
He jammed on the emergency brake, but it was too late. The man had gone under the wheels.
Stumbling over words, Mr. Guity radioed the dispatcher and then did what the rules require of every train operator involved in such an incident. He got out of the cab and went looking for the person he had struck.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Guity said later. “But this is a part of the job.”
He found the man pinned beneath the third car. Paramedics pulled him out, but the man died at the hospital. After that, Mr. Guity wrestled with what to do next.
A 32-year-old who had once lived in a family shelter with his parents, he viewed the job as paying well and offering a rare chance at upward mobility. It also helped cover the costs of his family’s groceries and rent in the three-bedroom apartment they shared in Brooklyn.
But striking the man with the train had shaken him more than perhaps any other experience in his life, and the idea of returning to work left him feeling paralyzed.
Edwin Guity was prescribed exposure therapy after his train struck a man on the tracks.
Hundreds of train operators have found themselves in Mr. Guity’s position over the years.
And for just as long, there has been a path through the state workers’ compensation program to receiving substantive treatment to help them cope. But New York’s train operators say that their employer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has done too little to make them aware of that option.
After Mr. Guity’s incident, no official told him of that type of assistance, he said. Instead, they gave him the option of going back to work right away.
But Mr. Guity was lucky. He had a friend who had been through the same experience and who coached him on getting help — first through a six-week program and then, with the assistance of a lawyer, through an experienced specialist.
The specialist prescribed a six-month exposure therapy program to gradually reintroduce Mr. Guity to the subway.
His first day back at the controls of a passenger train was on Thanksgiving. Once again, he was driving on the D line — the same route he had been traveling on the day of the fatal accident.
M.T.A. representatives insisted that New York train operators involved in strikes are made aware of all options for getting treatment, but they declined to answer specific questions about how the agency ensures that drivers get the help they need.
In an interview, the president of the M.T.A. division that runs the subway, Demetrius Crichlow, said all train operators are fully briefed on the resources available to them during their job orientation.
“I really have faith in our process,” Mr. Crichlow said.
Still, other transit systems — all of which are smaller than New York’s — appear to do a better job of ensuring that operators like Mr. Guity take advantage of the services available to them, according to records and interviews.
A Times analysis shows that the incidents were on the rise in New York City’s system even as they were falling in all other American transit systems.
An Uptick in Subway Strikes
San Francisco’s system provides 24-hour access to licensed therapists through a third-party provider.
Los Angeles proactively reaches out to its operators on a regular basis to remind them of workers’ compensation options and other resources.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has made it a goal to increase engagement with its employee assistance program.
The M.T.A. says it offers some version of most of these services.
But in interviews with more than two dozen subway operators who have been involved in train strikes, only one said he was aware of all those resources, and state records suggest most drivers of trains that strike people are not taking full advantage of them.
“It’s the M.T.A.’s responsibility to assist the employee both mentally and physically after these horrific events occur,” the president of the union that represents New York City transit workers, John V. Chiarello, said in a statement, “but it is a constant struggle trying to get the M.T.A. to do the right thing.”
new video loaded: Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid
transcript
transcript
Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid
Nearly 200 protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving a parking garage in Lower Manhattan on Saturday. The confrontation appeared to prevent a possible ICE raid nearby, and led to violent clashes between the police and protesters.
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[chanting] “ICE out of New York.”
By Jorge Mitssunaga
November 30, 2025
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