Biden taps Cuomo to serve as Secretary of State, as Hochul plans a gubernatorial transition

Sources close to former Vice President Joe Biden are telling The Chronicle that he has tapped Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve as Secretary of State in his administration. We are told Cuomo has agreed to the appointment, which they hope to announce formally just days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul has asked businessman Howard Zemsky to chair a gubernatorial transition committee, which is being quietly assembled in real time. It’s being rumored that the committee will include Niagara County Republican Chairman Rich Andres and former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner.

Andres is a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt. The appointment is seen as a significant political rapprochement, as Hochul will need moderates and centrists to secure reelection from likely Republican challenger Marc Molinaro, the popular and successful Duchess County Executive.

Kathy Hochul will become the first woman to serve as Governor of New York.

It’s expected that Hochul will be required to fend off a large field of rabid downstate primary challengers on the far left — many of whom are expected to appear on minor party lines in 2024.

Former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, Councilman Jumaane Williams, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and State Senator Liz Krueger are all expected to wage primary challenges for the Democratic Party nomination. It’s even been rumored that Al Sharpton is considering a run on the Green Party line.

Howard Zemsky is a pioneering real estate developer and led Empire State Development under Governor Andrew Cuomo. He has been tasked with assembling an administration that is bipartisan in its approach. He is expected to ask Andrea Catsimitidies, the Republican Party Chairperson of New York County, to serve as Secretary of State. Zemsky is likely to be named Hochul’s Chief of Staff.

Cuomo — who lacks experience in foreign affairs — is tentatively contemplating a world-wide diplomatic tour in February that Biden advisors are dubbing “pandemic diplomacy” in which the Governor would personally deliver crates of respirators and personal protective equipment in cargo planes to third world hospitals.

Cuomo has already been calling for new trade agreements with the European Union and may revive the Trans Pacific Partnership — though the later would be likely to infuriate exporters and domestic industrial labor in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan that consistently prove critical to winning the presidency.

Mayor Byron W. Brown is being floated for appointment as the next United States Ambassador to Canada. The four-term Mayor lives within a four hour drive of nearly one third of Parliament and only an hour and a half from Canada’s financial, cultural, and corporate hub of Toronto. The narrative of a Rust Belt Mayor working to promote cross border trade and commerce is expected to be projected powerfully. NAFTA remains deeply unpopular in midwestern border communities, which lost enormous steel plants and automobile factories in that trade deal.

As a trademark of he tenure at the Department, Cuomo plans to “heal the West’s relationship with its indigenous people” by enabling traditional indigenous governments to negotiate trade agreements on a nation-to-nation basis. At the behest of Oneida Nation leader Ray Halbriter, Biden and Cuomo have agreed to include sovereign indigenous governments in the United States and Canada to formally participate in NAFTA renewal talks, which are scheduled to occur every six years.

The Chronicle is told that Cuomo has agreed to relaunch the Office of Indian Trade — either inside the State Department or as an independent Executive Office — for the purpose of negotiating trade treaties directly with the indigenous governments of North America. Halbriter may very well end up leading that office, though that announcement would be premature.

Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbriter is lobbying former Vice President Joe Biden to be named to a Cabinet position in his administration. It’s unclear whether the Office of Indian Trade will be a cabinet appointment, like in the case of the US Trade Representative. It’s widely believed that Halbriter aspires to serve as Secretary of the Interior, but that appointment is unlikely.

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15 Comments

  1. Creepy Joe is getting in a rush before the fun of lawsuits for fraud start that are easily provable against the damnocraps. This will result in exposure and awarding of the office of president to President Trump.

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    • Amazing! Since during this pandemic he said, and I quote “I am NOT GOING ANYWHERE.” “I am STAYING RIGHT HERE in NY.” Yet..ANOTHER LIAR! GRRRR!

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      • Yes Andrew Cuomo LIED and stated he was not interested in Washington. Andrew Cuomo was Sec of HUD during its collapse. He was Gov of NYS and caused its collapse . now the United States will collapse if we have a con man as Sec of State. If Cuomo were to ever be confirmed that would tell us how bad the commission is as well.

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      • Biden that stupid that he puts a con man thief and political failure in as secretary of state ? Cuomo almost destroyed HUD as Secretary of HUD then left it destroyed NYS to the tune of 60 billion now runs away after he cons us And lies about Washington rumor. Cuomo is truly a piece of SHIT and Biden is no different now for putting a man who ran leaving new York tax payers to pay the billions he cost us.

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    • You’re full of sh!t as a Christmas turkey. How do you KNOW anything? Because it was fed to you by that Faux News? Drumpf lost and hopefully he’ll be in prison stripes by next year.

      Reply

  2. Hochul will be more difficult to beat in the 2022 election.
    Cuomo would be easy as he’s worn out his welcome.

    Reply

  3. The main Democratic challenger to Hochul (if indeed this article is factual), isn’t any of the above names..Sharpton has too much baggage and knows he wouldn’t even have a majority in NYC outside his home base..Ocasio-Cortez has even less of a base and she is too polarizing within her own party and vastly inexperienced to be Governor…The most logical challenger, and she seems to be auditioning for the job with her constant lawsuits and news exposure, is Letitia James, That position seems to be the stepping stone to governor in this state (don’t forget, Schneiderman before he resigned in disgrace, was widely rumored to be setting himself up for a gubernatorial run in the near future. James is well on her way to the same.

    Reply

  4. What the hell happened to real democrats? Not that I am one….but, wtf….who the hell started this insanity far left bullshit? Bunch of fantasy land living in m’fers….scary shit!

    Reply

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