Joe Biden’s aides were furious that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would make a self-service video for the 2020 National Democratic Convention and ask his camp to redo it, but they refused, a new book says.
“Every four years, Democrats asked themselves the same question about the New York governor and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:“ How will Andrew Cuomo do this time? “, Write the authors of” Lucky: How Joe Biden Hardly Won the Presidency. “
At the convention, four years earlier, Cuomo had argued “to double the allotted time,” while his team refused to participate in fact-checking sessions previously, the book says.
Last year, when Cuomo “was supposed to use his credibility to explain why Biden had the best plan to deal with the pandemic,” instead he “recorded something of a tribute to himself.” write the authors of Jonathan NBC News and Jonathan Allen. Amie Parnes of The Hill.
Cuomo’s team had sent the video on the day of the convention, according to the tome.
The governor boasted in the clip: “We climbed the impossible mountain and right now we are on the other side.”
He did not pronounce Biden’s name for up to 4 minutes and 50 seconds in the video, which lasted 5 minutes, the book notes.
“The convention’s speech writing team looked incredulous,” the authors write.
“They asked Cuomo’s assistants to film it again. The answer came back: no. “
A source involved in the production of the convention said of Cuomo’s camp: “They put the speech on our doorstep, turned it on, rang the bell and fled.”
The authors add: “Cuomo was much more of a headache for Democrats than any of the four Republicans who spoke the first night: former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman , former New York representative Susan Molinari and former Hewlett – Packard CEO Meg Whitman “.
Cuomo representatives did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment Tuesday on the book’s claims.
Cuomo is now in the struggle of his political life amid allegations of sexual harassment.
-Additional information from Bernadette Hogan