MSNBC host Joy Reid slammed Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo during her show Tuesday night over his $5 million book deal and his response to allegations of sexual harassment.
Figures released from Cuomo’s office Monday showed that the governor is set to make more than $5 million off his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which was published in October.
His office said in March that a “significant portion” of proceeds from the book would go to a coronavirus-related charity. Filings showed that one-third of the approximately $1.5 million he made so far after taxes was donated to United Way of New York State and the rest of the proceeds went into a trust for his three daughters.
It was also revealed that Cuomo undercounted nursing home deaths for months to obscure the true toll of the pandemic. The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported on May 15 that Cuomo was undercounting nursing home deaths. (RELATED: It Has Been One Year Since Cuomo Ordered Nursing Homes To Accept COVID Patients)
“We learn today that New York governor Andrew Cuomo will earn $5.1 million for his book on how great he handled the pandemic,” Reid said. “Problem is, while he was soaking up all that good press – mostly because he wasn’t a Republican governor resistant to taking action on the pandemic – he was also suppressing information on how bad the death toll was in New York’s nursing homes and what Times calls a month-long effort to obscure the full scope of nursing home deaths. Cuomo’s office has denied altering the data.”
“But that’s not even the only scandal he’s faced this year, with multiple women accusing him of sexual harassment,” she continued. “Cuomo’s denied any wrongdoing and his denials have become more strident with each passing week. He delivered this particularly tone-deaf response to a reporter last week.”
Reid played a clip of Cuomo talking about the sexual harassment allegations against him. The governor claimed that “making someone feel uncomfortable” is “not harassment.” (RELATED: TIMELINE: How Andrew Cuomo Went From America’s ‘Love Gov’ To Fending Off Calls For His Resignation In Less Than 12 Months)
“Harassment is not making someone feel uncomfortable,” Cuomo said. “That’s not harassment. If I just made you feel uncomfortable, that’s not harassment.”
“As the reporter later pointed out, Cuomo’s definition of workplace harassment seems to contradict a law that he signed in 2019 which lowers the standard of what’s considered harassment,” Reid said. “Through all of this, Cuomo has refused to resign, and for that, and plus the money he made profiting off the pandemic, he’s pretty much the worst.”
Reid went on to say that Cuomo is not “the absolute worst that the state of New York could do,” and claimed that Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew Giuliani – who recently announced a bid for governor of New York – was actually worse.
