Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was paid more than $4 million to write a book about his successful handling of the pandemic at the same time his office was hiding coronavirus nursing home deaths, according to a report.
The New York Times reported that the Democrat governor landed the seven-figure deal with Crown Publishing for his memoir American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was released in October.
The Times, which obtained an early draft of the book along with email correspondence about it, revealed Cuomo began writing the book writing his memoir in mid-June of last year and had an early draft written by early July.
Members of Cuomo’s administration also helped in drafting the book, although Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi insisted to the Times that the staffers who worked on the book followed “ethical requirements” in New York despite being government employees.
His draft closely coincided with the state department of health’s release of the July 6 report into coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.
Cuomo also took potshots at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) in an early draft of his book, calling him a “political opportunist who had ‘very little interest or aptitude for government policy or governmental operations.'”
The rant about de Blasio was cut from the final version, and the governor released his book on October 13. He praised his leadership skills during the pandemic, even though an end was not in sight.
Since then, Cuomo’s reputation has rapidly declined, between him being responsible for covering up nursing home deaths from the coronavirus to the sexual harassment allegations he has received from multiple women.
Cuomo’s multi-million-dollar advance is apparently not uncommon among politicians who choose to write books.
“Big money book advances are one of the most lucrative cronyism pipelines for corporations to curry favor with politicians. With a few exceptions, books by governors, senators, or members of Congress often result in lackluster sales,” a publishing industry insider told Breitbart News.
The insider added these “hefty” advances are given in the hopes they can gain influence politically.
Despite the lack of sales, “that doesn’t stop major publishing companies from giving them hefty book advances on the hopes they can ingratiate themselves to elected officials who have influence over industry regulations, particularly since New York is the center of the publishing world,” the publishing insider added.
When asked about the advance for Cuomo’s book, the insider called it “absurd.”
“Setting the politics aside, a $4 million dollar book advance for Andrew Cuomo’s flop of a book is absurd and hard to justify by any rational industry market standard,” the insider continued.