OPINION: Cuomo profiting from book deal during pandemic was wrong

We [recently] learned that Andrew Cuomo’s book deal was worth more than $5 million — yet another fact he hid from the public until finally forced to reveal it through tax disclosures. His decision to publish a self-promotional book during the deadliest public-health crisis of our lifetimes was wrong in both principle and process.

As taxpayer-funded employees worked on his book, Gov. Cuomo and his team deliberately altered public-health reports, withheld nursing-home fatality data for months, and refused to answer questions from state lawmakers and the U.S. Department of Justice.

We don’t know how much this book guided public-health policy during the COVID pandemic. That will be a matter for investigators to determine. But we now know the governor had at least 5 million reasons to portray his “leadership” in the best possible light.          

William (Will) A. Barclay, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact Barclay at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us. This article is drawn from a statement that Barclay issued on May 17.