Cuomo Says America Never 'That Great' [POLL]

Did Gov. Andrew Cuomo mean what he said? Was it a gaffe? Was it something else? No matter which interpretation you choose, Cuomo’s attempted riff on the president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan has taken on a life of its own.

In a bill-signing event Aug. 15 in Manhattan, Cuomo said, “We’re not going to make American great again. It was never that great.

“We have not reached greatness,” he continued. “We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.”

After the audience finished gasping, laughing or shouting, depending on how one interprets the audio of the event, Twitter lit up with comments, including those of President Donald Trump.

“Can you believe this is the Governor of the Highest Taxed State in the U.S., Andrew Cuomo, having a total meltdown!” Trump tweeted Aug. 15

He revisited the subject at 7:44 a.m. Aug. 17, tweeting, “How does a politician, Cuomo, known for pushing people and businesses out of his state, not to mention having the highest taxes in the U.S., survive making the statement, WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, IT WAS NEVER THAT GREAT? Which section of the sentence is worse?” The all caps were the president’s.

A little while later, at 10:17 a.m., Trump tweeted that there doesn’t seem to be a reason to vote for Cuomo again after his statement.

“This could be a career threatening statement by Andrew Cuomo, with many wanting him to resign…,” Trump tweeted.

Cuomo’s political opponents didn’t hold back their thoughts.

Actress/activist Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo for governor in the September primary and will be on the ballot in November on the Working Families Party line, said, “It think this is just another example of Andrew Cuomo trying to figure out what a progressive sounds like and missing by a mile.”

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who is the Republican candidate for governor, said Cuomo owes the country an apology.

“This governor is so determined to distract voters from his failed policies and corrupted administration that he’s willing to dismiss the steady, determined march of the American people, making and remaking the greatness of America,” he said, according to the New York Post.

Cuomo, for his part, attempting to correct course, countered the president’s tweet by saying, “What you say would be ‘great again’ would not be great at all…We will not go back to discrimination segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK. Like NY’s motto says: Excelsior — Ever Upward (not backward).”

Politico reported that Cuomo attempted another stab at explaining what he meant, during a conference call with reporters, by saying, “The expression I used the other day was inartful, so I want to be very clear: Of course America is great and of course America has always been great. No one questions that. When Trump started talking about the slogan called ‘Make America Great Again,’ that what he believes establishes American greatness is not greatness at all.”

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think. Vote in our unscientific poll and leave a comment below saying why you voted as you did.

Photo caption: Gov. Andrew Cuomo appears at the Wednesday event where he said America "was never that great." Photo credit: Office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo/Flickr.