NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo hasn’t won the New York City mayor’s race yet, but he’s already planning a national campaign to take on President Donald Trump — whose Department of Justice is reportedly investigating him.
In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO last week, the New York City mayoral frontrunner said he plans to campaign against Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts to help Democrats in swing House districts across the country — a political strategy he says could help his party retake the House. Cuomo pointed to the tactic when asked how he’d handle working with the president while potentially under criminal investigation.
“I would spend eight years in Washington — go to that U.S. Conference of Mayors, go to the National Governors Association,” he said. “He’s cutting Medicaid. Medicaid is not a blue-city, blue-state situation. That is in every state. That is a lot of red Congressional districts. And he could lose the House on cutting Medicaid if you organized it and got it moving.”
“You’re going to have to be a spokesperson, advocate, organizer,” he added. “This is what Medicaid means in Mississippi, this is what Medicaid means in Texas. … And you organize that, they don’t have a lot of Congressional seats left to lose.”
He was answering a question about what leverage he would have as a New York City mayor — a position that relies heavily on the federal government for funding — in dealing with a presidential administration that is reportedly probing him in what he described as a “laughable” investigation.
The Department of Justice probe into Cuomo, reported by the New York Times two weeks ago, followed a criminal referral from House Republicans that alleged Cuomo lied during testimony to Congress about his gubernatorial administration’s report on nursing home deaths during Covid. Cuomo’s order to require nursing homes to admit Covid-positive patients continues to be a source of controversy. He says he was following federal guidance; critics say he endangered thousands of New Yorkers and subsequently undercounted their deaths.
Cuomo has said he did not recall reviewing or revising his administration’s report — after initially saying he was not involved in it, per Congressional Republicans — and reiterated that assertion in the interview.
“My thing is, I don’t recall. There’s no incorrect statement in, I don’t recall,” Cuomo said, calling it “purely political nonsense.”
He told POLITICO he has not been contacted by the Department of Justice and, at a press conference Sunday, said he has yet to receive a subpoena.
Cuomo used — and critics say abused — the powers he was granted as a three-term New York governor. He acknowledged that a mayor has relatively little authority compared to a president — making a zero with his fingers to illustrate the imbalance between the two roles. He said he would fill that absence of structural power with political organizing, should the Republican president punish him or the city he seeks to lead.
“What is Medicaid going to mean in Lawler’s district?” he said, referring to a New York swing seat held by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler. “But what is it going to mean nationally, is the way you really make a difference.”
Cuomo is leading every poll in the crowded Democratic primary to oust Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for reelection as an independent in November. It was the mayor’s own dealings with Trump following a federal corruption indictment — which a judge tossed at the White House’s behest in a deal several prosecutors called a quid pro quo — that further tarnished his reputation and pushed him out of the primary.
Shortly after Cuomo jumped into the race in March, he gave a few soft answers on how he’d deal with Trump — noting their shared Queens roots and suggesting the president understands New York City’s needs.
But he has since toughened his rhetoric, likely recognizing New York Democratic voters’ appetite for a resistance fighter. After news of the DOJ probe broke, he cut an ad portraying himself as a victim of a weaponized justice system. His spokesperson slammed the investigation as “lawfare and election interference.”
In the interview, Cuomo said any Democratic mayor is vulnerable to Trump’s attacks.
“Assume any person who becomes mayor will be investigated. Just assume that. If they oppose Trump, he will investigate them for leverage,” he said, calling it “the price of admission.” He added that he believes he’s been targeted because Trump is most afraid of tangling with him.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in response to Cuomo’s comments about the probe and his national plans, “The last time Andrew Cuomo had a say in health care, thousands of New York’s most vulnerable perished in nursing homes due to Cuomo’s blatant incompetence and disregard for science. Cuomo is not the white knight that Democrats are looking for to stop Republicans’ commonsense effort to protect Medicaid by taking illegal immigrants off the program.”
Following news of the DOJ investigation, Trump told reporters he was “surprised.”
“I’ve known Andrew. We’ve had an on-off relationship. He was saying the greatest things about me … and then the next day he’d hit us. And I did a lot for them,” Trump said. “But I hope it’s going to be okay, I hope it’s not going to be serious for him. We’ll see what happens.”
A career politician and government official with a national profile, Cuomo spent four years mostly out of the public eye after he resigned in 2021 following a state attorney general’s report that concluded he sexually harassed female staffers. He vehemently denies the findings and has said he regrets leaving office.
Winning the mayoralty — a position with a large bully pulpit — would put him back in the spotlight he craves.
He said he’s not thinking of a future role beyond being mayor, but sees an opportunity to make a national case for Democrats.
There’s a long history of New York City mayors failing to springboard to a national role. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio all flamed out in their respective presidential bids. And Adams dashed his own early hopes to be the party’s standard bearer — the “Biden of Brooklyn,” as he put it in better days for both of them.
Cuomo, a risk-averse and cautious politician, seems to be similarly eyeing a bigger role.
As far as winning City Hall goes, he waved off his rivals’ criticisms about Trump backers donating to a well-funded super PAC boosting his campaign.
“I don’t even know if they’re Trump donors,” he said. “Bill Ackman donated to me before there was a Trump. These people I know before Trump. They’re not Trump donors, they’re Cuomo donors who maybe supported Trump.”
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