It feels strange and terrible to say, but it’s true: Chris is “the smart one” among the Cuomo kids.

Via Splinter, this isn’t the first time this guy has strained to pander to the left via solidarity with illegals by inviting the feds to deport him. He did it last summer too. He’s doing it again now because he’s under pressure in his gubernatorial primary from actress Cynthia Nixon, who’s smart, poised, excellent on camera, and dogmatically progressive — the antithesis of Cuomo. You wouldn’t gamble on her defeating him but you might lay down a few bucks that she’ll give him a scare, which will damage his presidential hopes.

So here he is, trying to get right with the left by insisting that even though he and both of his parents were born in the United States, he’s “undocumented.” Sort of.

“Wop” isn’t an acronym for “without papers,” actually, although that’s a popular urban legend. Common sense tells you why. With millions of immigrants from across Europe entering the U.S. at the turn of the previous century, it makes no sense that Italians uniquely would be accused of being “without papers.” But never mind that. With notable exceptions, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, U.S. immigration laws were famously permissive during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such that being “without papers” or undocumented wasn’t tantamount to being here illegally, as it is now. Even if it was, despite the best efforts of strong-form border hawks, children born to illegals on U.S. soil continue to enjoy natural-born citizenship under the 14th Amendment. You’re in the clear, Andy!

What makes the clip truly funny, though, is how badly it failed to impress its target audience. Read the Splinter piece linked above and you’ll see why. If a progressive hero had mouthed a statement of solidarity with illegals like this, no matter how hamfisted, they would have been cut a break in the name of having good intentions. Because Cuomo is the centrist establishment villain, he’s actually being attacked by the left for saying it:

Statement on Cuomo claims of being son of "poor immigrants," "undocumented" & "middle class." Our @antonioalarcon: To immigrant NYers…these fabrications are offensive…His parents weren't immigrants, his family wasn't poor, & he has no idea what it’s like to [be] undocumented. pic.twitter.com/1TsGo9bVjq

— Make the Road Action 🦋 (@MaketheRoadAct) April 18, 2018

“It’s not the first time Cuomo has tried to identify with groups in which he firmly does not belong,” sniffs Splinter, pointing to the clip below from January 2017. Watch it and marvel. He couldn’t possibly be pandering harder to core Democratic voting blocs, not just celebrating them but claiming identification with them. You have a problem with Muslims, with blacks, with gays, with women (pro-choice women, anyway), then you have a problem with me, Cuomo’s saying. Not long ago, voters would have cheered a statement of solidarity with minority groups like that by a powerful politician. In the Age of Identity, though, Cuomo identifying with minorities is very problematic indeed. You don’t know what being black or gay is like, Andrew. How dare you? This idiot deserves his base and they deserve him. Richly.

As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim. I am a Jew. I am Black. I am gay. I am a woman seeking to control her body. We are one New York​. pic.twitter.com/peOL9x2ltl

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 29, 2017