Recent scandals involving Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D-NY)handling of the coronavirus pandemic as well as allegations of sexual harassment from former aides have led to a “precipitous drop” in sales of his book about leadership during the pandemic.
Cuomo’s book, “America’s Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” was released in October, at a time when the mainstream media was still hailing the New York Democrat as the hero of the pandemic. Beginning shortly after President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, however, the media began to turn on Cuomo, reporting on his long-known nursing home scandal.
Cuomo enacted arguably one of the worst policies of the pandemic: Forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients on short notice, whether they were equipped to properly care for them or not. Since the elderly are the most susceptible to the virus, sending infected patients into that population proved deadly. Cuomo then tried to cover up the number of deaths related to the policy, blaming everyone but his own administration, threatening to “destroy” a state Democrat lawmaker for criticizing the policy, while aides pressured state health department officials to change a report to remove the true number of nursing home deaths in order to avoid a federal investigation. The pressure came shortly before Cuomo’s book was launched, according to The New York Times:
Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic.
The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor’s most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The extraordinary intervention, which came just as Mr. Cuomo was starting to write a book on his pandemic achievements, was the earliest act yet known in what critics have called a monthslong effort by the governor and his aides to obscure the full scope of nursing home deaths.
In addition to increased reporting surrounding the nursing home scandal, Cuomo also has been accused by three woman of sexual harassment. Lindsey Boylan accused Cuomo of making crude comments, making her uncomfortable by likening her to his reported ex-girlfriend, and allegedly kissing her without her consent. Charlotte Bennett accused Cuomo of asking her inappropriate ““questions about her sex life, whether her relationships were monogamous, and whether she ever had sex with older men,” The Daily Wire reported. Anna Ruch accused Cuomo of making unwanted sexual advances toward her at a wedding, including placing his hands on her face and asking to kiss her.
The multiple scandals have caused sales of Cuomo’s book to drop significantly, even beyond the typical drop associated with books that have been available for months. Bloomberg reported that just 300 copies of the book were sold in February.
“A steep drop-off in sales within eight weeks of release is common for books about politics, according to Kristen McLean, an analyst with NPD. However, sales for Cuomo’s book saw a ‘precipitous drop’ five weeks ago, from the low thousands to less than 200 copies a week, McLean said in an email,” Bloomberg reported.
McLean, however, wouldn’t say specifically what caused the drop.
“Of course we cannot confirm why it’s dropped,” she told Bloomberg. “We will leave that question to others.”