ED WORD: A new documentary includes Ed Koch calling then-Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo a “schmuck” in 2010 after an election-night brush-off. (
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“He’s a schmuck!”
That was sharp-tongued Ed Koch’s assessment of Andrew Cuomo, captured by a crew filming a documentary on the three-term former mayor that will debut this weekend at a Jewish film festival.
The former mayor hurled the epithet in 2010, when he was turned away from the door at Cuomo’s election-night headquarters, where he traveled to congratulate the governor-elect on his big win.
Normally, the slur would have gone unnoticed. But in this case, Koch was being trailed by the documentary’s film crew.
The film “Koch” will screen at the Lincoln Center film fest.
“I supported him,” Koch recalled yesterday. “It’s normal to go and pay your respects. One of the people with me came back and said he’s not seeing anybody. It was the end of the evening. I was tired. I said whatever I said.”
“He’s a schmuck!” are the precise words Koch used.
Koch turned 88 last month, and remains sharp mentally. But even two years, ago he had physical challenges and admitted he was “a little pissed” at having been turned away from Cuomo’s suite at the New York Sheraton right after the polls closed.
He still considers himself a Cuomo supporter, Koch said, and hopes there are no hard feelings. “It’s probably not the worst thing he’s been called,” he added. “Not by me. Others.”
The two men have a history.
When Koch ran for mayor in 1977, anonymous posters popped up declaring, “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo.”
At the time, then-19-year-old Cuomo was managing his father Mario’s mayoral campaign, and some in the Koch camp blamed him for the underhanded attack.
Koch seems to accept Andrew Cuomo’s word that he had nothing to do with the ugly posters.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also got a dose of Koch’s candor when he described her that same election night as the “luckiest woman in the world” for not having a significant challenger for such a high-profile seat.
“I wasn’t demeaning her assets and intelligence,” said Koch. “She was able to walk into one of the most important jobs in America.”
Gillibrand’s mentor, Sen. Chuck Schumer, got a verbal slap when he finished speaking from the Sheraton stage that same election night.
“Bulls–t,” Koch remarked as Schumer was addressing Cuomo supporters in the ballroom promising “to make your lives a little better.”
Two years later, Koch said of Schumer, “Everybody kind of laughs at his Sunday press conferences. I was just giving voice to that. Somebody should check whether any of that stuff was implemented. Is that so terrible?”
The film, by Neil Barsky, opens in theaters Feb. 1.