A week after Mayor Bill de Blasio eviscerated Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a pair of stinging interviews, Mr. Cuomo declined to punch back, telling reporters that the mayor was “obviously frustrated” with Albany.
“He chose to publicly vent his frustration. We all have our own styles and our own comportment and we all see our roles in a certain way,” Mr. Cuomo told reporters today after an unrelated announcement in Manhattan. “My father had one style, Koch had one style … that’s the mayor’s style, it’s not my style.”
Mr. Cuomo claimed that he often had to “bite” his “tongue,” implying that his more measured approach with the press today was an outcome of that tactic.
“I try to bite my tongue once in a while,” he told the Observer.
Mr. Cuomo said he could understand Mr. de Blasio’s anger. “Look, the mayor was obviously frustrated he didn’t get everything he wanted from the legislative session. Welcome to Albany,” he said. “I was frustrated. I didn’t get everything that I wanted.”
Following more than a year of measured diplomacy, Mr. de Blasio last week blasted the governor over the outcome of this year’s legislative session, which saw many of the mayor’s top priorities go nowhere. The mayor, a fellow Democrat, accused Mr. Cuomo of working in league with State Senate Republicans to foil him. He said he was “disappointed at every turn” by Mr. Cuomo, adding that he undertakes “vendettas” against those who cross him.
Mr. de Blasio was particularly frustrated that mayoral control of public schools was only extended for a single year.
“It keeps playing out in ways that I think sometimes are about deal-making, sometimes about revenge,” Mr. de Blasio said during a sit-down with City Hall reporters in his office. “I think each situation obviously is different. But it’s not about policy. It’s not about substance. It’s certainly not about the millions of people affected.”
But Mr. Cuomo said he’s had “extraordinary success” working in a bipartisan fashion in Albany. He claimed that New York City came out far ahead after the 2015 session and this was because he was able to work with both sides of the aisle.
“There is something we have here in Albany that you don’t have in New York City which is called a Republican house,” Mr. Cuomo continued. “You don’t have to deal with those annoying issues of partisanship and getting two sides, two parties to agree.”
“We have a bunch of characters in New York. I work very hard at working with all of them,” he said.
