Cuomo says polarizing right and left are pandering to their political bases

The heat wave isn’t just the temperature.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a radio interview on Friday decried what he said is “super heated” rhetoric on both political extremes. That places a burden on officeholders to achieve tangible accomplishments to satisfy a restive electorate, he said.

“It’s a real function of this political environment,” Cuomo said in an interview on WXXI in Rochester. “I understand it. People are angry, they’re anxious, they’re frightened.”

Cuomo was responding in part to a question about the climate change bill he signed into law on Thursday that includes benchmark reductions in carbon emissions and a shift to renewable energies in the coming decades.

On the right, Cuomo pointed to President Donald Trump’s ongoing rhetoric surrounding immigration.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he keeps coming back to these hot-button topics like immigration,” he said. “It panders and plays to his base.”