In a recent report by the New York Times, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was paid nearly $4 million for early drafts of his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From The COVID-19 Pandemic,” in which he bragged about dealing with his leadership skills and handling one of the hardest-hit states during the early months of the pandemic.
The deal was made with publisher Crown and it was revealed that he wrote the book between June and July, which was close to the date of the July 6 reports in which he altered the coronavirus nursing home death total. As one of the biggest frauds of the pandemic, the $4 million book deal was a strong enough reason for Cuomo to hide the real death totals as long as he did.
“The governor wanted to personally profit and politically profit from his book deal. He covered up the truth about the nursing home scandal – his team covered up the truth – to benefit himself financially and politically. That’s what we’re seeing,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a recent City Hall Briefing.
Mayor de Blasio adds that the federal and impeachment investigation officials must take the book deal and misuse of public staff and funds into account. Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa, who first leaked the nursing home scandal, helped him edit early drafts of the book, and assistants printed out multiple portions of the manuscript on the job.
In an unpublished draft of the book, Cuomo even called Mayor De Blasio “one of the worst mayors in modern history” and a leader with “obvious ego-driven narcissism.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Cuomo also writes that the Mayor is a political opportunist and that he has had very little interest for government policy and operations. He doesn’t forget to mention that his own “popular ratings” in New York have always been higher than De Blasio’s.
While Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said that his assistants had “volunteered on the project,” he adds that there is nothing ethically wrong with the book meetings they held. The term “volunteer” has not yet been defined by his office and they have denied any requests for additional comments. Another aide, Stephen Brenton, even had assistants deliver portions of the manuscript to his Executive Mansion.
The state’s nursing home deaths were undercounted as much as 50% and state health officials went so far as altering the overall July Health Department report. Cuomo’s book was released in October as a “retelling” of the pandemic but did not mention any of the cruel neglect and needless deaths from his executive orders. Officials are demanding an investigation into the memoir as it became a piece of profitable fiction on the public and made him a lot of money at the cost of his integrity.
While Amazon wiped their site clean of several conservative-based books, such as “When Harry Became Sally, a psychological and scientific approach to the transgender movement, Cuomo’s book remains at the top of their site. It is even marked as an “Editor’s Pick” of Best Nonfiction. Some of the users who left comments about the book add that their original reviews had already been “censored” by Amazon.
Others left reviews that their own parents had been affected by Cuomo’s nursing home orders, in which he signed a mandate on march 25 requiring that nursing homes should accept COVID-19 positive patients. The collections of falsehood raise questions about why the book is being kept on the site in the first place, especially when Amazon would remove other books that are based on scientific evidence. But it’s purely partisan at this point.
Only Democrats could profit from a crime and get away with it. In a matter of time, the families of nursing home residents will deliver a pile of lawsuits to Cuomo’s office for damages in what he’s written, having government employees edit a book while on the clock, and do all of it on the taxpayer’s dime. Nothing about a $4 million book deal was “volunteer.”
