Joe Biden’s aides were furious that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made a standalone video for the 2020 Democratic National Convention and asked his team to redo it – but they refused, says a new book.
“Every four years, Democrats asked themselves the same thing about the New York governor and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development: ‘How is Andrew Cuomo going to fuck us this time?’ ‘, Write the authors of “Lucky: How Joe Biden barely won the presidency. ”
At the convention four years earlier, Cuomo had criticized “twice his allotted time”, while his team refused to participate in fact-checking sessions beforehand, says the book.
Then, last year, when Cuomo “should use his credibility to explain why Biden had the best plan to deal with the pandemic,” he “recorded a kind of tribute to himself,” write authors Jonathan Allen of NBC News and Amie Parnes from The Hill.
Cuomo’s team sent the video on the day of the convention, the tome says.
The governor boasted in the clip: “We have climbed the impossible mountain and, at this moment, we are on the other side”.
He didn’t pronounce Biden’s name until 4 minutes and 50 seconds into the video – which was 5 minutes long, the notes in the book.
“The convention’s speech writing squad watched in disbelief, ” write the authors.
“They asked Cuomo’s advisers to refill it. The answer came back: No. ”
A source involved in the production of the convention said of the Cuomo camp: “They put the speech on our door, set it on fire, rang the bell and then ran away.”
The authors add: “Cuomo was much more of a headache for Democrats than any of the four Republicans who spoke on the first night – former Ohio Governor John Kasich, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, the former New York representative Susan Molinari and former Hewlett – Packard CEO Meg Whitman. ”
Cuomo’s representatives did not immediately respond to The Post’s request to comment on the book’s allegations on Tuesday.
Cuomo is now in the struggle of his political life amid accusations of sexual harassment.
– Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan