Karin Lam – PAF 9199

Rhetorical Criticism of a Major Speech in New York City

Andrew Cuomo, in State of State Speech

On January 13, 2016, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York delivered a State of the State speech. This speech is very important because it called for a financial and spiritual commitment to rebuild the state’s social and physical infrastructure.

Andrew Cuomo was born in New York City on December 6, 1957 and is the 56th governor of New York, serving since 2011. According to biography.com, prior to his role as governor, Cuomo served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (1993-97) and then as secretary of HUD (1997-2001) under President Bill Clinton. In 2007 he became New York State's attorney general, working alongside former Governor Eliot Spitzer. Cuomo is the son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and the brother of famed American news anchor Chris Cuomo. Since taking over the New York governorship, he has become known for focusing on LGBT rights, including marriage equality; women's rights; and economic stimulus in New York State, among several other issues.

Andrew Cuomo based his speech primarily on agenda setting where he addressed problems that New York State faces and he allowed his speech to bring to the forefront these issues to the audience’s attention. He stated, “But with all that we’ve done, we are not immune to the problems vexing our nation. Crumbling infrastructure, a slow economic recovery, the unambiguous reality that climate change threatens the very way of life, a growing specter of terrorism, homelessness, an ever widening gap between the wealthy and everyone else, political polarization and government gridlock. All challenged issues to be sure.” However, he changed his tone quickly to say that we have a government that is built to lead and hence, we can address them. He stated, “While our challenges are daunting because of what this body has accomplished in the past, it should give all of us great hope for the future.”

His main points in the speech were to a proposal to address the challenges of homelessness and a lack of affordable housing. In his 2016 agenda, Andrew Cuomo put forth a $20 billion plan to add 100,000 permanent housing units over five years, and thousands more units of housing that would offer shelter and social services across New York State. A housing plan would benefit the city. To be exact, he proposed $10 billion to build 100,000 units of affordable housing and $10 billion for housing for the homeless which included 20,000 units of supportive housing and 1,000 emergency shelter beds.

I feel Cuomo gave very specific examples of his proposals, for example, of calling for an audit of homeless shelters to find those that are unsafe. In addition, he requires those to have additional police protection. Cuomo asked city Comptroller Scott Stringer to audit and inspect all New York City shelters to make sure they are safe and clean.

His speech was framed very well. For example when he was giving a lot of examples of actions taken (“And we did it. And we were right to do it. And we were right when we showed this nation true leadership and passed marriage equality; and we were right when we stood up for the women of this state and we passed the Women’s Equality Act; and we were right when we passed the most aggressive law stopping sexual violence on college campuses in the nation; and we were right when we stopped fingerprinting for food; and we were right when we led the way on climate change; and we were right when we stopped discrimination based on sexual identity; and we were right when we passed common-sense gun safety laws. New York now has the smartest gun laws in the nation. And remember this, since Sandy Hook, when we passed our gun control law, we have had fewer gun deaths in the state of New York thanks to your good work”). After that he paused a bit and state “that is leadership.” It emphasizes those three words. This happened numerous times during the speech. A lot of times less words are more powerful.

Andrew Cuomo also talked about an increase of New York City’s contribution to the City University of New York system and to Medicaid costs. He had a budget proposes to reduce the state’s spending on four-year colleges at CUNY by almost $485 million. Currently these schools are financed by state money, financial aid and tuition. The budget also calls on the city to increase its contribution to growing Medicaid expenses, which had been frozen for several years.

During the speech, Mr. Cuomo was very brave to say that the state was “stronger than at any point in recent history…The Empire State is poised to grow and to lead.” In addition, I found the speech very nicely framed as he presented the idea of pushing for 12 weeks of paid leave for workers with a new child or sick relative. Prior to the paid leave, he was talking about his personal life with his father and how he regretted the lack of time he spent with him. Cuomo stated that there are lessons he learned the hard way (due to passing of his father last year), but he is happy that it gave him an opportunity to grow and learn. He stated, “Life is such a precious gift, and I have kicked myself every day that I didn’t spend more time with my father at that end period,” he said. “It was my mistake, and a mistake I blame myself for every day.” By doing this, he is trying to connect with everyone on a personal level as everyone has a father and family so it is something people can relate to. He also gave statistics and facts to back up his case (i.e. out of 185 countries, the United States is one of just three that does not have paid maternity leave. The others are Suriname and Papua New Guinea.)At the end of the day family matters and by setting his speech this way, he asked for the support to pass family leave in his 2016 agenda.

Cuomo’s speech relied heavily on using pathos (as discussed in a previous lecture). This type of storytelling uses emotions. By using emotions he accomplishes ethos as well which is the credibility while connecting with the audience.Because Cuomo was very specific in his example of his father, this approach seems to be very effective.

Andrew Cuomo also uses other examples of short stories to establish an emotional connection with his audience while touching on the values of intimate relationships and love to get his message across. He also emphasized the importance of relationships and how we should be there for one another, especially in a family environment. He gave another example, this time about his wife Sandy Lee and how she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Cuomo took this experience and used it as an energy source to help others. His lead up is to how early detection is the best treatment and framed his message that way. He went on to talk about proposing $90 million to make New York have the ost aggressive breast cancer screening operation in the country.

He has a theme of unity and hope throughout his speech. He is constantly talking about New York as a family – “We’re going to have to act to protect ourselves and to protect our own people. So yes, it is an ambitious agenda, and yes, it is going to be a challenge. But I know you and I know what you’re capable of and I’ve seen what you can do and I have no doubt that you are going to rise to this challenge.”

Andrew Cuomo also used metaphor to state that New Yorkers are the Empire State – “We’re the people who survived 9/11. You knock us down, we get up twice as strong. That’s who we are. And our strength — our strength is insurmountable because it is a strength rooted in our principles. That’s what drives our ambition and conviction. It’s our belief and it is our values. It’s what we stand for. That makes us unbeatable and that’s why you can’t knock us down, because we’re going to keep getting up, because we are New York and we are New Yorkers and we are the Empire State and what we stand for, we will never give up on. We stand for freedom. We stand for democracy. We stand for being united against terrorism. We stand for the spirit of community that says you can’t discriminate against anyone in our state on the basis of race or color, or creed. We stand for unity that we are one at the end of the day.”

I honestly feel that Cuomo’s tone in his speech was very ambitious and aggressive as he talks about tackling corruption, homelessness and unveiling his $145 billion budget proposal and about his proposal to increase the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour. Cuomo also called for gradually raising the current $9 minimum wage to $15. He went on to talk about revamping Penn Station and expanding Javitz Center in Manhattan.

Cuomo’s usage of metaphor – “The tallest buildings, the longest bridges, the deepest tunnels — they never said quit.” By giving life to how buildings and bridges and tunnels can talk, he is trying to solicit a certain feeling in us that all these things has life and that we are the people behind it and that it is our turn. That we must continue to grow in size and strength (just like the buildings, bridges, and tunnels), and we must develop a new system of mass transportation, roads and bridges and airports for the next 100 years. This was a brilliant way to get his message across.

In addition, he also said that going forward, we must continue our focus on reinvigorating the state’s economy, because that is the “engine that pulls the train”. He is again using metaphor that we need to focus on the state’s economy because that is when we are helping everyone else as it is the engine that drives everything else.

In addition, it was quite interesting to watch that as the governor was giving his speech, Assemblyman Charles Barron began shouting from the audience at Cuomo. There was definitely a lot of media coverage regarding this. Charles Barron was shouting, “This is not real. This is not real. Come to the neighborhoods where the poverty is high. He has a billion-dollar surplus and the poverty is high.” The governor was very poised and responded by saying, “All right assemblyman, sit down. Everybody heard you; everybody saw you,” and “Just because you yell doesn’t mean you’re right.” However, because of the media treatment of this, we were able to focus into what Charles Barron was saying. He was criticizing Cuomo of short-changing state schools by $4 billion and gutting funding for the homeless. In a statement afterward, Barron said “I am sick of the hypocrisy and neglect displayed by the governor towards our most needy. I refuse to sit and watch him make claims and statements that are backed by insufficient actions. Governor Cuomo needs to take a stand and put the money where his mouth is.” Because of Charles Barron, there are many who may be swayed and may start to question Cuomo’s agenda.

Cuomo tries to touch our souls with his speech as he emphasized and repeated certain words. For example one part he said, “This is New York. This is New York. And we are New Yorkers and we will not allow people to dwell in the gutter like garbage. It hurts all of us. You can see it on people’s faces.” He is referring to the times we walk by a homeless person and not able to look them in the eyes. We pretend we do not see them because we don’t want them to see us. It is shameful for us to walk by them and not do anything about it. “It’s as if every time we walk by a homeless person we leave a piece of our soul on that curb. This is not who we are as a people, it’s not our values as a society, it’s not what we were taught, it’s not how we live and it’s not what we’re going to do as a government. We are better than this.” He is using compassion and charisma to frame these key issues talked about during his 2016 agenda.

Cuomo also said “I Believe” ten times throughout the speech. The repetition of this phrase at the beginning of a sentence outlines what he believes in as shown in here:

  • “I believe this is the economy of tomorrow and while we’re developing the business plan, we can also employ it in the state of New York.”
  • “I believe in the promise of education and its potential to serve as the doorway to opportunity.”
  • “I believe it is reckless and irresponsible not to share information about possible terrorists who are living or operating within our borders.”
  • “I believe our people will support the funding necessary to help protect and support their brothers and sisters.”
  • “I believe this will improve shelter services and thereby help bring the homeless off the streets and will give the public confidence that everything that can be done is being done.”

According to NY Daily News, “Governor Cuomo is no longer pouncing on opponents as he did during his first term. But those close to the governor vehemently deny he's getting soft.” It seemed the Cuomo administration, it was a get along or kill mantra, however having seen his poll numbers drop, his speech and tone is also different. His speech is trying to gain the trust of his people as there is a lot of talk about unity and family and sticking together through rough times. Cuomo used the idea of a unified nation to get his point across.

The words a leader uses and how they deliver those words can definitely make a big difference on people and actually move people to action. The ability of our leaders to speak persuasively is crucial and almost essential for our economy to thrive. I truly believe it is a gift and that we need eloquent and effective speakers. We need great speakers on both sides of political spectrums but only then are they able to carry the message to us as citizens so we can make the decisions. Cuomo plays on the idea of togetherness, the idea of having a united front and more importantly he uses the metaphor of the nation being a family and not leaving family behind. The comparison of unity amongst a family and the unity amongst the country was definitely used to Cuomo’s advantage.

Works Cited

Biography.com Editors. “Andrew Cuomo Biography.” The Biography.com website.18, Jan. 2016. (

Kramer, Marcia. “Gov. Cuomo Unveils Budget Plan, 2016 Initiatives During State Of The State Address; Shouts Down Heckler.” CBS New York.13, Jan. 2016.McKinley, Jesse. “Cuomo, in State of State

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Speech, Unveils $20 Billion Housing Plan.” New York Times. 13, Jan. 2016.

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