On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Governor Andrew Cuomo addressed the delegates in Philadelphia. Evoking memories of his father, the late former governor Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo painted Republicans as the party of fear. Zack Fink filed the following report.
Speaking for almost 15 minutes, Governor Andrew Cuomo compared New York values, including embracing immigrant rights, to Republican calls to build a wall on the Mexican border.
"Unless Republicans are all Native Americans, then they are immigrants, too," Cuomo said.
In a poignant moment, Cuomo spoke about his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, who delivered the keynote address at the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, which offered a liberal alternative to Ronald Reagan's vision of America.
"Tonight, pop, wherever you are, and I think I know where, at this time of fear, please help this country remember what truly makes it great, that we are one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all," Andrew Cuomo said.
The governor also pointed to his own accomplishments in New York, including a $15 minimum wage approved this year, saying Republicans want to stop progress.
"They say they want to take us back to the old days, the good old days. I want to know what 'good old days' they want to take us back to. Do they want to take us back before the Civil Rights Act? Do they want to take us back before minimum wage and worker protection laws?" Cuomo said.
Although the presidential election is a little more than three months away, it wasn't near the end of his speech that Cuomo first mentioned Hillary Clinton.
"We say: e pluribus unum - Out of many, one. That is our founding premise, that is our enduring promise and that is our goal for this nation, and Hillary Clinton is the person to make that goal a reality," he said.
Cuomo said from the beginning this week that he was honored to speak on the final night of the convention. He got his wish, and his rival, Mayor Bill de Blasio, had a much less high-profile speaking slot the night before. But the governor still spoke well before primetime.