Governor Andrew Cuomo again spoke out of both sides of his mouth to New York City residents on Wednesday over Phase Three reopening.

While saying how well people did in curtailing the Covid-19 spread, Cuomo said he would not open up bars and restaurants. He chastised NYPD for not enforcing mask wearing and social distancing as reasons for continuing the lock down of indoor dining.

Just as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council were defunding the cops to the tune of $1 billion, Cuomo threatened to bring into the city his own police force to crackdown on the same residents that brought the infection rate from worst in the US to first.

I have a different reason for the indoor dining ban. Neither Cuomo nor de Blasio want out of town residents to see how awful Midtown Manhattan looks after protests and riots — along with the lock down. Not to see how many businesses have shuttered as a result of this four month shutdown.

Manhattan looks like a shell — some burnt out — of its former self. Plywood is still covering many storefronts as those businesses are not coming back. Office towers remain ghost towns and commercial real estate prices will plummet as companies realize they can do more with people working from home.

Cuomo on Wednesday also chided President Trump for “being in denial” on the seriousness of the disease. The governor went so far as blaming the White House for the growing number of cases in other states for continuing the dining-in lock down in NYC.

If I didn’t know any better, I believe Cuomo is putting himself out there as a possible Vice President candidate to bolster Joe Biden’s ticket.

Cuomo oftens says its facts not politics. However, his facts say NYC has the lowest new Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. So its politics as far as I can see.

It’s optics over what Manhattan looks like after the riots and protests as well as keeping NYC closed so Trump has an uphill battle to get the US economy back on track.

You tell me what Cuomo is going to do over the next three weeks and I’ll tell you he is running, to cite his often used phrase.