The two men were born a decade apart in Queens, New York, one as heir to a real estate estate and the other for a political dynasty. Donald Trump then became president, and Andrew Cuomo became governor like his father.
In the course of their long and controversial careers, both men seemed invulnerable. But thanks to the recent work of one lifelong civil servant, who was born into a large family in Brooklyn without much money or power, every man is suddenly faced with a moment of unused liability.
State Attorney General Letitia James, the first woman of color to ever hold an elected office in New York, exploded a hole in the fable of Cuomo’s pandemic leadership with a report showing in January that the state deaths in nursing homes have been reported too little by as much as half.
A swift succession of claims of sexual harassment against Cuomo in the ensuing weeks has knocked him off his political seat, prompting the question of whether he will withdraw his 2022 re-election offer – or even resign before ending his current third term.
Trump could be in even greater danger. Since 2019, James’ office has been investigating business practices within the Trump Organization and family. Trump has fought fiercely in court, but James has managed month after month to track down financial records that appear to pose a major legal threat to the former president, analysts say.
“He must be very worried,” George Albro, co-chair of the New York Progressive Action Network, knew James was going back when he was a union in New York and she was a public defender. “She’s going to come to his logical conclusion.”
The Trump case and the Cuomo nursing home scandal have garnered a huge stream of attention for James, while people outside New York politics have wondered how a single civil servant can make such big legal waves.
People who know her from her time as a public defender in New York City – when she was the first woman of color to be elected nationwide – and her time as a city councilor before nodding in recognition: it’s Tish.
As Attorney General, James aggressively pursued a complete catalog of progressive cases.
She sued the police station for brutality against people of color, blocked illegal evictions during the pandemic, won a major sexual harassment deal for women in the construction industry, filed an amicus order before the high court that opposed a rushed census, and sued Nasional. gun association.
She also sued Amazon for allegedly not protecting workers, sued Facebook as a suspected monopoly and investigated Google on similar grounds. She asked federal regulators to trap toxins in baby food and asked for student relief.
“I see the law as a shield and as a sword,” she said in a public discussion on black leadership last year. ‘And so I wake up every day with a fire in my stomach and march into the office – well, I’m actually marching into my kitchen – and the question is, what can I do today to make a difference in someone’s life? make? ? Who can I sue? ”
James admits critics from the past who thought she was suing too much without holding on to enough stick. But she argues that “the law should be a tool for social change” – and with the pressure she put on Trump visible tension among family members, the impact of her efforts is clear and the public mood is enthusiastic with her.
This kind of momentum led to speculation about what would be next for the political pioneer with impeccable grassroots evidence retaining a large store of benevolence in New York City, as well as a disarming, earthly approach on and off the campaign. .
“Everyone still calls me Tish,” she told Melva M Miller, chief executive officer of the Census Watchdog Association for a Better New York, in a public forum last year. ‘I still have to do my laundry later – I’m still Tish. I have to go to the grocery store – I’m still Tish. ”
James, 62, one of eight children, went to public school in Brooklyn and graduated from Lehmann College of City University of New York and earned a law degree from Howard University, the historic Black University in Washington DC.
Her first recollection of the justice system, she said, saw a court official verbally abusing her mother during a trial for a brother.
“When I looked around the courtroom, all the accused and all the family members looked like me, but not everyone was in a position of power, and there was something really unbalanced and unfair about it,” James told Miller.
Prior to her election to the New York City Council in 2003, James worked as a public defender, advising the speaker of the state legislature, and as assistant attorney general for Brooklyn, where she targeted predatory money launderers, advocated for working families and the first case against the New York Police Department for so-called stop-and-go abuse.
She lost a primary race to join the city council, but was able to resume her bid when the incumbent was shot dead in city hall. In her ten years on the council, she has emerged as an advocate for police reform and for better public housing.
She also showed a fearlessness over the acceptance of powerful political figures, helping to lead the charge against an attempt by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to change city rules and take a third term in power (‘ a battle that Bloomberg won).
However, some political allies questioned whether James’ attitude toward antagonism toward the powerful would apply to Cuomo, who paved the way for her political future by endorsing her as attorney general.
As a candidate under Cuomo’s protection, James insisted that she had been ‘undone and unbaked’ by the governor. The results of her bomb investigation into how the Cuomo administration did not report Covid-19 deaths in the nursing home show that she meant the words, Albro said.
“She told us she would be independent of the governor, and I think she proved it,” he said.
Her fight against Trump has the potential to further raise James’ profile – and prospects – and encourages open speculation as to whether she might not succeed the governor whose alleged misconduct she helped expose. Before he was elected governor, Cuomo was attorney general – the job James now holds.
“I think she wants to be governor, I think it’s clear, and she’s going to be a formidable candidate,” Albro said.
“I think she’s going to be a formidable candidate because she’s much loved and known in the city, and that’s a big part of the vote.”