"These people and their f***ing tree houses"

The transformation had its limits. Some who worked on that campaign detected an essential shallowness that could lurch privately into conspicuous indecency. Another aide said that Cuomo once accused him of failing to head off aggressive reporting from a female journalist for personal reasons, asking, “You banging her?” He could also bridle at the indignity of voter courtship, growing especially irritated about an event celebrating Sukkot, the Jewish harvest holiday when the faithful gather outdoors beneath temporary shelters of branches and greenery. “These people and their fucking tree houses,” Cuomo vented to his team, according to a person who witnessed it and another who was briefed on his comments at the time. (The spokesman denied both incidents, adding: “His two sisters married Jewish men, and he has the highest respect for Jewish traditions.”)