Cuomo: I Was Just Joking About Weiner Slap

On Thursday, media reported that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had come out against former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s bid for New York City mayor. “Shame on us [if we elect him],” Cuomo supposedly said. On Friday, Cuomo walked back those comments. His office told the New York Times that Cuomo was merely joking. That makes the second time this month Cuomo’s office has had to walk back a Cuomo “joke.” The first time, Cuomo tried to claim that a lengthy explanation of his legislative strategy was actually just a bit o’ fun.

The governor’s office said that the comment was “made in jest.” An anonymous Cuomo staffer added, “As the governor has said many times, he has no plans to endorse in this year’s mayoral primary.” Cuomo himself walked back the comment late yesterday, when he said, “I don’t have an official position on the mayor’s race, and I’m going to leave it at that.”

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).