147: 3 Tactics Gov. Andrew Cuomo Used in His Resignation Remarks to Repair His Reputation

I was wrong. I thought for sure Friday news dump day was when the resignation would happen. Then I saw this clip on Twitter and I got ready. He touched the logo on her shirt, which was her energy company logo, as he was greeting her. The governor did not mean to grope her. The voice you heard was outside counsel Rita Glavin, who claimed the report from the state Attorney General's office, which alleged the Governor Andrew Cuomo, sexually harassed multiple women. It contained errors and also admitted key evidence in the matter. She tried. Cuomo's lawyer tried. But as I tweeted after I saw that video, if your defense for sexual misconduct is sexual misconduct, it is time to gather your things, Cuomo. And only minutes after I posted that tweet, and also I had just started a live webinar for participants in my indestructible online masterclass, the governor went live. Cuomo announced he would step down as Governor of New York effective August 24th. On this special edition of the podcast, using Governor Cuomo's response as a case study for ethical response in public relations, how did Governor Cuomo respond, what he said, and what he really meant. I'm offering three tactics Cuomo used in his strategy as he left his role as the 56th governor of New York. For you, the communicator or the leader, the question is, did these tactics work? Should you use these tactics if you find yourself in a position of writing a resignation speech or delivering one yourself, what do you say in your remarks to ease yourself out of the position in a way that leaves your reputation intact, A little damaged perhaps, but able for reconstruction down the road? In other words, how do you resign with indestructibility? If you saw my remarks on Twitter this week or on Instagram, you saw that I went on Instagram live igtv to watch Cuomo's remarks in real time. The reason I did it is because I knew how predictable he has been in his fight to keep his job for months and months. There were three framing tactics that I noticed that he used in his resignation that aligned perfectly with how he's been digging his heels in ever since the accusations started and the calls for his resignation. So I want to give you the three tactics that he used to to try to go out on top. Okay? The first tactic, number one, right from the start, he wanted you to know who you were dealing with and what he is all about. Take a listen first.

I've always started by telling New Yorkers the facts before my opinion. So let's start New York tough with the Truth.

Governor Cuomo wants you to know he has always told the truth. He is not about opinion or bias. He comes to that later. He is a straight talk, and he is from New York. Cuomo also said that the most serious allegations made against him had no credible factual basis in the report. And there is a difference between an alleged improper conduct and concluding sexual harassment.

I thought a hug and putting my arm around a staff person while taking a picture was friendly, but she found it to be too forward. I kissed a woman on the cheek at a wedding, and I thought I was being nice, but she felt that it was too aggressive. I have slipped and called people honey, sweetheart, and darling. I meant it to be endearing, but women found it dated and offensive.

Notice what he did there? He admitted to facts by quoting the report, but he did it down to the micro detail. We hear him, quote, admit that there were 11 women who he truly offended. And he said for that he was deeply, deeply sorry or he apologized. But he breaks down those accusations to such detail, the details of his choice, that he's attempting to minimize his indiscretion. The line, the denying, the changing of the definition. Is his type of a covert spin. Honey, sweetheart, darling. All words he used his whole life. Because Cuomo's Italian and his Italian parents modeled the same behavior. So if you say that he's a sexual harasser, well, then you are calling Cuomo's parents sexual harassers. And as well. And while you're at it, you're offending all the Italians out there that you're calling all Italians sexual harassers. But note when he uses that response trick, it's really a covert passive aggression. He says he meant the term honey and darling to be endearing, but women found it dated and offensive. See what he did there? He blamed the women. He blamed them because they were wrong. They thought it was dated, they thought it was offensive, and they were wrong. When people make arguments like this, it's what is sometimes referred to as bad faith. It means that they don't even care about or even try to understand the other person or people. Cuomo is completely dismissing all of the accusers and people who believe the accusers, these female accusers, or even. Even worse. What he's doing is he's dedicated to deliberately misunderstanding or mischaracterizing other people, and he's often doing it to the point of blasphemy and absurdity. So that was Cuomo tactic number one. It was blame, deflect, and attacked. He blamed the women who accused him of harassment he also blamed social media. He said Twitter has become the public square for policy debate. And then he said there's an intelligent discussion to be had on gender based actions, on generational and cultural behavior differences, on setting higher standards and fighting reasonable resolution. That was straight from a transcript. Those words, that's what you call word salad. It's a mix of words that are just thrown together with no coherence, no structure to throw you off. Because after that, salad is the main course, the attack. And here it is.

But the political environment is too hot and it is too reactionary for that now. And it is unfortunate.

It's politics, folks. It's politics. So that moves us to tactic number two. Take a listen.

Now, you know me. I'm a New Yorker born and bred. I am a fighter. And my instinct is to fight through this controversy because I truly believe it is politically motivated.

So here he is now, segueing his blame to the next item on his agenda, reminding everyone that Andrew Cuomo is New York and he is a fighter, because New Yorkers are fighters. He goes on to say that New York tough means New York loving. And he loves New York and he naturally loves you. And everything he has ever done has been motivated by that love. That's more word salad. It's just love and hate and this and that. But he says all of that as a setup to why he's doing it. Take a listen.

And I would never want to be unhelpful in any way. And I think that given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing. And therefore, that's what I'll do. Because I work for you. And doing the right thing is doing the right thing thing for you. Because as we say, it's not about me, it's about we.

Did you know that Governor Cuomo is stepping aside? Not down, but aside. And listen to his raving review of his replacement, Kathy Hochul?

My lieutenant governor is smart and competent. This transition must be seamless. We have a lot going on. I'm very worried about the delta variant, and so should you be. But she can come up to speed quickly.

How's that for setting up your replacement for success? You could just imagine him. You can predict him when he. When something happens. Like when she makes her first misstep. Well, she failed. Don't tell me. Don't say that. I never warned you, because all she was is competent. Cuomo then goes on to remind everyone of all of his successes. He talked about how there was no other state government that accomplished more to help people. He wanted people to know that. He passed marriage equality. He created a new Civil Rights Act. He legalized love for the LGBTQ community. He generated a force of change that swept the nation. I don't know what that means. He passed the SAFE act years ago. He has the smartest gun safety law in the United States of America, and it banned the madness of assault weapons. I swear, when he was saying that, it reminded me of the movie the American President with Michael Douglas. And remember when Michael Douglas was on the podium as the president and he said, and we're gonna get the guns. And when we get the guns, I swear, it's like Andrew Cuomo said, give me an Aaron Sorkin. I need to watch the West Wing. I need to watch American President. Cuz that's all the speech is. So here for a moment. I will say this here. He's earned the right to mention what he's done, because he certainly has. He may be a thug, he may be a sexual harasser, but Governor Cuomo did do a lot. We can't forget that. I mean, I'll admit it. At the beginning of the. Of the pandemic, I did a podcast episode about his presence, about how he was managing the COVID response with his press conferences. He did an amazing job. And so when President Biden said the day of the resignation in a press conference that he respects Cuomo's decision to resign, and he had said that the governor did a hell of a job, Biden was downplaying the impact of Cuomo's actions that it will have on the Democratic Party. In other words, it was political. He almost had to do it. But you also can't erase the good that Cuomo has done. I mean, politics is politics. Yes, they do good work. There's a lot of work that they do and they should accomplish, and that's why they get reelected. And I will say, I have a lot of friends who live in New York, a lot of friends who have a lot of opinions, and many of them liked Cuomo, not because they liked his personality, but they felt that he was the best governor for a state who they thought was completely screwed up, but they thought that he was the lesser of two evils. They actually thought he was doing a good job. But it did get to the point, like, how long can you keep someone in office who is committing such egregious acts? So we do have to remember that. That. That is. He's allowed to do that. And back in the day, you Know, if you think back to those, you know, the first months, you know, he was the face of COVID and people swooned over him. I mean, he even won an Emmy for his briefings. So he wanted to remind people of what he did. I mean, and that's PR straight out of my playbook. I don't, I don't regard him that at all. Because his front and center during COVID covered the thuggish behavior behind the scenes. Because while everyone was loving him on the outside about his response and doing an amazing job with it, really behind the scenes, he was a thug. And that's what we've learned now. And those were some of the reports that were coming out now. That's really the start of the downfall today of why he had to resign today. It was the thuggish cover up. But here's where he also took a brief stop to remind us that he's a father. You will see this in every single resignation speech, or at least a well drafted and crafted one, they are putting the human side of the person. So the person has failed, the person has fallen as they come tumbling down. You need to remember who's hurt on the other end. And there's usually a wife there, like poor Silda. When Governor Spitzer, Elliot Spitzer, when he had to resign for his sex scandal. Do you remember her just standing there at the side? I mean, they created the television program, the CBS television program, the Good Wife, you know, based off of this press conference. Governor Cuomo did not have a spouse standing next to him because he and Kerry Kennedy divorced long ago. And, you know, she has a. There is a rock solid NDA on her that she cannot say a word, otherwise we'd be hearing everything about her. He and his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, they broke up as well. So he was alone. So that's why we had to hear about his three jewels, his daughters. So that humanizes anyone who's made a mistake. So you can't fault him for doing this.

My daughters have more talent and natural gifts than I ever had. I want to make sure that society allows them to fly as high as their wings will carry them. There should be no assumptions, no stereotypes, no limitations. I want them to know from the bottom of my heart that I never did. And I never would intentionally disrespect a woman or treat any woman differently than I would want them treated. And that is the God's honest truth.

And that is the God's honest truth. So here's a note. Whenever someone evokes God, I swear to God, I swear in my children's lives, hand down the bottle. I never did it. That can be it usually is the mark of a lie. It's the mark of someone who really doesn't believe what they're saying. So they add the frosting on the top to add a little extra flavor of truth to their story because they know it needs it. They cannot serve their cake without any frosting because no one's going to want to eat it. So they have to cover it with any type of sweetness they can to make sure that people will take it. In number three, here's his last tactic that sets the stage for his exit and what's next? Governor Cuomo is writing his own legacy for you. He tells us about New York.

You led the nation and you showed the way forward, and how you did it is what's most important. You did it together. Not as black New Yorkers or white New Yorkers, not as LGBTQ New Yorkers or straight New Yorkers or Democrats or Republicans or upstate or downstate or Jewish, Muslim, Protestant or Catholic New Yorkers.

So there's more. So just keep listening for a bit. Who is Andrew really talking about here?

Please remember that lesson. Hold it dear and hold it up high for this nation to see, because it is New York State at her finest, creating her legacy, fulfilling her destiny, giving life. An animation to the lady in the harbor saying excelsior. We can be better. We can reach higher. And proclaiming e pluribus unum. Out of many one.

Out of many one. The end of Cuomo's remarks were meant to remind you of the work, not of the state, not of the people of New York, but of its governor and Andrew Cuomo. He wanted to remind everyone of all the work that he and he alone did for New York. He wanted to reset the clock and remind you of the time when everyone loved him. A time when he was known as the Love Gov. A time before the COVID 19 nursing home deaths. A time before sexual harassment allegations. A time before his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, who was accused of helping hide the nursing home death numbers and also bullied the women who accused her boss of harassment. A time before the Ronan Farrow piece he wrote and published Andrew Cuomo's war against a federal prosecutor. It was in the New Yorker. It came out on August 10, the day that he resigned. That story was the death knell. So what's next? Though Governor Cuomo announced plans to resign, he still faces legal threats from his ongoing criminal investigations and from a civil battle that at Least one of his accusers has now vowed to pursue. So Governor Cuomo does have his work cut out for him. But in the end, which tactics work in an indestructible resignation and which ones do not? As a reminder, tactic one, he used blame, deflect, and attack. Tactic two, protect and frame your image. And tactic three is leave your legacy intact. Better than it was before. Well, here is your indestructible PR tip. When it comes to crafting, drafting a resignation, what you want to make sure that you never do is what Governor Cuomo did in his first tactic. You never want to blame, you never want to deflect, and you never want to attack. Everyone nowadays is wise to it. They see right through it. When you blame someone, you are making it personal. An attack is personal, unlike wise guys like the ones Cuomo did not hearken when he mentioned his Italian heritage. Whenever you hear about, like the mob, it's not personal, it's business. When you attack someone, it's personal. People, in this environment nowadays, in this culture of online rhetoric, people will fight back. They will always fight back. They will dig to prove that you are wrong, and they will make sure that you go down. They will fight back hard. In the age of social media, no one wins the blame, deflect and attack game. That leaves us with tactic two and three. They're important because they also happen to be step two and three of the indestructible PR response framework. You've heard it before. Tactic two, protecting and framing the image. What he did there, that's in the response framework. Explain it. He's explaining who he is, he's explaining his history, he's explaining what he's done. And tactic three, leaving your legacy. That's the third step of the PR framework. It's promising it. It's what he's promised to the state and what he's going to promise to move forward. Cuomo tried to do step one of the indestructible PR framework, which is own it. But he did it on his terms. He owned up to a truth, but it was his truth. It wasn't the actual truth, and that's why he needed to resign. So that's all for this special edition of the podcast. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer. Bye for now.