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Cuomo Is Writing A Book About His Experience 'Leading NY State' Through The Pandemic
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 18, 2020
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 18, 2020
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Governor Andrew Cuomo during his pre-recorded address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention
DNC
In addition to leading New York State through the worst health and financial crisis in modern history while also designing self-aggrandizing posters, Governor Andrew Cuomo is also working on a book in his spare time. The publishing house Crown announced on Tuesday that it will release a memoir by Cuomo about his leadership during the COVID-19 crisis.
"In his own voice, Andrew Cuomo chronicles in American Crisis the ingenuity and sacrifice required of so many to fight the pandemic," Crown, the publisher, said in a statement, "sharing his personal reflections and the decision-making that shaped his policy, and offers his frank accounting and assessment of his interactions with the federal government and the White House, as well as other state and local political and health officials."
Cuomo alluded to the book during his Monday appearance on Alan Chartock's WAMC show. While teasing his 2020 Democratic National Convention speech, he said, "I use a metaphor, I say the COVID virus itself is a metaphor for the ailment that we're facing because a virus attacks the body when the body is weak and the American body politic is weak because the American body politic is divided and it's never been this divided before. That's why we are susceptible to the virus and then the federal government which is a metaphorical immune system was incompetent to respond.... You know, it's not COVID, it's not just the George Floyd tension. It's what it is evidencing. It's evidencing a divided nation and a divided nation is weak. It's evidencing a government that can't respond. It says not functional and I really believe, Alan, I don't get into it in the speech, but I think this is going to be a transformational moment in politics. Actually I'm working on a book at the same time and I did say this in the book, this could be an FDR transformational moment. When was the last time government mattered? Think about it. Not in a generation. You know, you'd have to go back to the Vietnam War."
The book is expected to be published in mid-October:
In 2014, Cuomo's memoir, All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life, was released, with publisher HarperCollins issuing a 200,000 print run; it sold 3,200 copies and earning the governor $738,000.
Financial details of his new book deal were not disclosed, but Cuomo is currently a national celebrity—with celebrity fans—after his marathon of pandemic press briefings that popularized catchphrases like "Today is Saturday" and "You're wrong." Since the peak of the pandemic in New York, the state from a 48% positivity rate at its peak to about a 1% rate currently. To celebrate flattening the curve, Cuomo is selling a "New York Tough" poster (proceeds going to NY State) and commissioning props for COVID-related media events, like the huge foam mountain representing the toll of coronavirus cases in New York.
Cuomo's DNC speech used some PowerPoint slides at the beginning, and also referenced familiar themes from his pressers—better angels; "Today is Monday"; "Love wins."
More than 25,000 people have died from COVID-19 in New York State, but the true number of deaths in New York nursing home is still unclear.
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Governor Andrew Cuomo
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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