Joe Biden and Andrew Cuomo get alone fine…..

Mr. Biden, 77, and Mr. Cuomo, 62, have emerged as unlikely twin pillars of their party in a national crisis, Mr. Biden as its presumptive presidential nominee and Mr. Cuomo as its most forceful spokesman in a public-health emergency.

The political stakes for both men — and for their relationship — are almost unimaginably high, all the more so because of their overlapping and complementary vulnerabilities. Both are long-serving moderate stalwarts in a Democratic Party that has shifted leftward, and old-school practitioners of back-room politics in a culture that has sped up and moved online. Accentuating those challenges, Mr. Biden has struggled for years with a reputation for bombast and verbal indiscipline, while Mr. Cuomo has drawn complaints for an imperious and bullying personal style.

They have turned to each other as allies during taxing moments in the past: Much as Mr. Biden consulted with Mr. Cuomo in 2015, the governor appealed to Mr. Biden for help three years later when he faced a primary challenge from the left.

But now they are facing the greatest public trial of their lives — and counting on the resiliency of their relationship to help them navigate it.

At times, the current circumstances might have threatened to push them into competition. In recent weeks Mr. Biden has struggled to make himself heard in the din of a national crisis while Mr. Cuomo, whose daily virus updates have drawn widespread praise, has stirred Democratic fantasies of a commanding and articulate governor somehow emerging as a white-knight challenger to President Trump. Mr. Trump himself has sought to stoke some kind of feud between them, opining on Fox & Friends that Mr. Cuomo would make “a better candidate than Sleepy Joe.”

There have been moments of political friction over the last year, brief sparks between their camps if not between them. Mr. Cuomo complained privately for much of 2019 that Mr. Biden’s campaign was not responsive to governors like himself, and questioned whether the campaign was adequately prepared to contest New York’s primary. Advisers to Mr. Biden, meanwhile, were frustrated when Mr. Cuomo, who expressed early enthusiasm for Mr. Biden’s campaign, specifically noted last summer that he had not yet issued a formal endorsement.

Still, the relationship between the two men in this moment has been defined not by resentment but private consultation and public expressions of affection, people close to both men said. Mr. Biden has called Mr. Cuomo’s role in the coronavirus crisis a national “lesson in leadership,” while Mr. Cuomo went on the CNN show hosted by his younger brother, Chris, to hail Mr. Biden as a “great public servant.” Recently, Mr. Biden and Mr. Cuomo are said to have spoken about every two days, and their political advisers speak at least as frequently….

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