Can she make a comeback without renouncing him?
Melissa DeRosa walks into Docks Oyster Bar like she used to own the place.
Its where DeRosa held court in a backroom at the height of her power.
There is no backroom for her when we meet for our interview on a recent, chilly Sunday afternoon.
There isnt even table service.
She sidles up to the bar and orders a mimosa.
How can you be anything other than depressed and feeling a little lost?
In fact, quite the opposite.
On the spectrum ofthrowing your former boss under the bustostanding by him, DeRosas book broke the scale.
The question is: to what end?
She has begun writing a Daily Beast columncritiquing Democratic strategy.
But Im not ready to give up.
DeRosa resigned fromthe Cuomo administration on Aug. 8, 2021.
She never seriously considered abandoning Andrew Cuomo.
But thats not who I am.
I know Andrew Cuomo, she says, I lived in the [Governors] Mansion during COVID.
There were also the costs she had already sunk into his career.
Behind every hard-fought political victory a $15 minimum wage; shorter lines at the DMV!
there was an aspect of her personal life left unattended.
She gave her attention to work, she writes, and her then-husband eventually found attention elsewhere.
It was a strange thing to feel like, Who am I now?
I certainly never thought Id find myself 41 and divorced.
You do everyone a disservice when you lie about that.
If I were working for a politician today, Id say put your hands nowhere near anyone.
Dont tell people they look lovely, she said.
Im not saying all 11 are lying, DeRosa says.
I concede he kissed women on the cheek.
I concede he said, How ya doing sweetheart.
Still, asked in our interview why Commisso would lie, DeRosa appears momentarily unsure.
Ya know, she says, I dont know.
Only two people were in that room, but adds it doesnt comport with the Cuomo she knows.
(DeRosa was implicated in the report, too.
Of the suppression allegation, she says she did not want inaccurate information to be reported.
Of the retaliation allegation, she says had a right to correct the record.)
Late last year, Commisso sued Andrew Cuomo and the state of New York for sexual harassment.
She tells me the report left out sworn testimony from the supposed eyewitness, saying it was not true.
(The attorney generals office declined to comment.)
She appeared alongside Cuomo onBillMaher, seemingly carving out a place in the anti-woke, center-left lane of politics.
She says a local New York City radio show is forthcoming.
Theres a lack of passion in people.
Well, she was only as mean as her male bosses.
Was I demanding and difficult?
You bet your ass, DeRosa says now.
It was hard and grueling on a good day, but it was an honor.
We demanded perfection, she says.
That was the environment.
The people who were superior thrived.
The people who werent up for it found something else to do.
After the books publication,it didnt take long for DeRosas fighting spirit to reveal itself intact.
Have you responded to this?
What matters is whos left standing in the end.
It all seems like an exhausting way to live, but also a slightly thrilling one.
Imagine never picking your battles or holding back what you think.
Shamelessness can be its own sort of superpower, allowing one to deflect criticism while plowing ahead with self-promotion.
Whats Left Unsaidis unfailingly loyal to Cuomo, but squint and youll see DeRosa making efforts to distance herself.
Perhaps in retrospect that was our bad.
Still, her book has kept them intertwined, and kept Cuomo in a political conversation hed otherwise exited.
The timing has been serendipitous.
With the embattledNew York City Mayor Eric Adams facing a plummeting approval rating, theres blood in the water.
For a moment it seemed DeRosas ambitions and Cuomos might even be on a collision course.
But, when asked about it, DeRosa is coy.
She declines to provide the poll.
DeRosa could end up back where she began: boosting Cuomo’s political fortunes.
She adds, At some point you have to go off on your own.
