Andrew Cuomo and the Performance of Power
About this episode
New York Magazine's Rebecca Traister joins Klein to examine Andrew Cuomo's fall from grace as a case study in how Americans mistake a brutal performance of authority for effective leadership. They trace how Cuomo's pandemic press conferences recast him as the anti-Trump — despite an early Covid response a study found cost about 17,000 lives and a nursing home policy whose deaths his administration then covered up. Traister reports the governor's bullying and harassment were longstanding, institutionalized habits — staffers were groomed to scream — and that his fixation on dominating cameras eclipsed governance, with aides saying he was never invested in policy. The pair contrast Cuomo with Trump, Weinstein and Steve Jobs, and explore the gender double standard: white men's cruelty is read as part of their 'genius,' while Hillary Clinton and Amy Klobuchar face far harsher scrutiny, revealing a bipartisan reverence for white patriarchal power norms.