There are certain phrases that politicians use that we know mean the opposite of what the phrase intends. For example, when POTUS Biden puts his hands up and says, “true story,” there’s a better than even-money chance that the tale he has just told is indeed apocryphal. When VPOTUS laughs at a question, we can be fairly certain she’s not doing so because she thinks the question is funny; rather it’s the opposite. And now we can add to that list the following phrase, “was zero about us.” That’s the phrase Rich Azzopardi, the self-proclaimed “bulldog spokesman” for Governor Cuomo, used when he tried to justify the ‘end of COVID’ fireworks that New York set off this past Tuesday. After a NY Daily News columnist suggested that the day (and the fireworks) were all about Cuomo, Azzopardi lashed back on twitter:
Right Rich, right. First of all, somebody from the Cuomo administration telling someone else to “get over yourself” is Rich, if you’ll pardon the pun. Second, the fireworks were 100% about Cuomo (“us” as Rich put it). How do I know that? Because everything Cuomo does is 100% about “us”, or more accurately “him”. We also know it’s true in the case of the fireworks because Cuomo himself told us so. They were set off on Tuesday because…Tuesday was his father’s birthday. Friday or Saturday would have made more sense considering it would have given the essential workers time to plan for them and maybe have their kids enjoy them (Tuesday was a school night in case the Gov forgot so the kids didn’t get to see them). But who cares about the kids when Dad’s birthday is on the calendar? And yet Rich still wants us to believe that the fireworks were to honor the essential workers. Mmm, hmm.
You know what’s odd about all that though, Rich? Do you know who DIDN’T know about the fireworks (until later that day on Tuesday when the New York Post called him for a comment) – Dan McCoy, the Albany County Executive who helped coordinate and work with all those essential workers for the past twelve months. You’d think the guy that handles logistics and security AND helped run the COVID response for the county in which the Governor lives would have been alerted to the fireworks, but alas, he was not. And do you know why? Because the fireworks “was zero about us” according to the bulldog. That’s Rich. -Doug