ALBANY, N.Y. — For Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it should have been a softball question lobbed from a friendly source.
The governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor, asked what he thought of President Donald Trump’s repeated insinuation that health care workers in New York City were stealing medical supplies from hospitals by taking them “out the back door.”
But Andrew Cuomo did not take the bait.
“It’s a very vague thing,” the governor said. “It went out the back door? I don’t know what that means.”
His younger brother seemed stunned.
“It didn’t go out the back door,” Chris Cuomo said. “He is saying somebody is taking it.”
“Maybe that’s what he means but I don’t know,” the governor replied. “It’s a very vague reference.”
The exchange Monday was a vivid example of the delicate balance that Andrew Cuomo, a third-term Democrat who is enjoying a surge in popularity, has struck in his handling of the Republican president.
It is a daily dance that employs equal parts open flattery and indirect attack, bended knee and sleight of hand. In practical terms, that plays out in the governor’s complimenting the president by name, but seldom attacking him that way.
While most Democratic leaders criticize Trump at nearly every turn, Cuomo has made it clear that he is more interested in getting help to fight the outbreak than he is in engaging the president in a war of words.
And Trump has returned the gesture.