What a turkey!
Gov. Cuomo — responding to mail taunts saying he was bested by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Amazon debacle — played dumb about her pivotal role in it after doling out free birds Tuesday.
Cuomo claimed that it was the opposition of local state senators that led the e-tail behemoth to pull the plug on its plans to build to Queens — ignoring the fact that the congressional freshman phenom was famously up front and center in the battle.
“The congresswoman had nothing to do with the Amazon decision. It was done by the state Senate, and she’s in the US Congress,’’ a touchy Cuomo told a Post reporter after handing out gobblers in Westbury, LI.
As The Post exclusively reported Tuesday, the governor was bombarded with about 2,200 pieces of correspondence over Amazon’s plan for a new headquarters, both before and after it fell through in February.
Opponents of the plan argued that, among other things, the $3 billion in incentives Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio offered in a secret deal with Amazon was unnecessary for the cash-drenched company.
Amazon, which had pledged to bring more than 25,000 jobs to the region, said it pulled out of the Long Island City plan because of the unexpected outcry.
People angry over Cuomo’s handling of the disaster wrote to him, mocking him for losing out to former bartender AOC.
“You got outsmarted by a bartender . . . thanks,” Patricia Kaufman seethed in an e-mail.
Anne Catalano wrote, “Seriously? We lost AMAZON’S headquarters?!! Are you all so afraid of AOC and screaming, stupid protestors who don’t understand Economics 101??? Is she so intimidating that you and [Mayor Bill] De Blasio couldn’t get this done? SHAME ON YOU!!!!”
In February, Cuomo called the deal’s collapse “the greatest tragedy I have seen since I have been in government.”
He predicted it would cost the state dearly in terms of future business, claiming other companies’ executives had already told him they were leery about relocating to New York because they feared similar public backlash over potential incentives.
The governor, asked after another turkey giveaway in Brooklyn on Tuesday whether the state has lost any business deals over Amazon, replied, “Not that I know of.”
Meanwhile, those who bombarded Cuomo with correspondence over the failed deal also griped that he is not doing enough to address local transit, housing and homelessness issues.
Some of the disgruntled masses said the governor ignored these issues while offering billionaire Amazon boss Jeff Bezos a helipad in the city if he built in Queens.
“THREE BILLION DOLLARS AND A HELIPAD? REALLY?” Nico I. raged in one e-mail.
Rosalva Welsch suggested to the gov, “Why didn’t you spend a month — a week — even a day — commuting on the 7 line . . .”
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya
