'HEIGHT OF HUBRIS' BY CUO
Drama of his final days
Andrew Cuomo is described in a new book as a Nicorette-chomping “a--hole” who ruined the lives of his staffers after letting national fame get to his head — and even used a blackface-tainted fellow Democrat as a guidepost for survival.
“America’s governor was quickly turning into America’s a-hole,” political strategist Lis Smith bluntly assesses in an excerpt published by Politico of her 304page tome, “Any Given Tuesday.”
The book details Smith’s work with Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace last August, from her work on his 2018 reelection campaign to his desperate attempts to survive multiple accusations of sexual misconduct.
An accusation by a state trooper revealed in the bombshell report by state Attorney General Letitia James was a final straw for Smith and other Cuomo insiders who had believed his denials.
“Even after the fateful call when we’d told him that his career was ‘over,’ he tried to press on. He called each of us individually to ask our opinions, seeking a sympathetic ear or some way out of the situation he found himself in. He didn’t find one.
“The sole exception was former President Bill Clinton,” Smith writes.
Cuomo — who Smith said chomped a “never-ending stream of Nicorette” in his final days as governor — announced he would resign days later, a dramatic fall for a three-term governor once celebrated for his handling of COVID-19 the year before.
Gov love from self-described Cuomosexuals, whispers of a dark-horse run for the presidency and an Emmy award for his once-celebrated COVID briefings likely went to his head, according
to Smith, a longtime operative who has also worked with Bill de Blasio and Pete Buttigieg — and had a fling, exposed by The Post, with a still-married, hooker-loving ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
“He started to feel his oats. Just four months into the pandemic, he signed a multimillion-dollar book deal with Random House to tout his leadership lessons during the pandemic. It was the height of hubris,” Smith wrote.
‘Northam it’
But Smith and others nonetheless helped Cuomo try to weather a series of political storms in 2021 that included the sexual-misconduct accusations, a cover-up of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents and more.
“Politics is filled with cutand-run artists — soulless social climbers who cling to elected officials when they’re popular, then disappear the second they’re not. I never wanted to be one of those people,” Smith writes in the book.
Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a fellow Democrat who had been accused of wearing blackface years before, provided an example of a politician who had survived a seemingly career-ending scandal.
“The decision was made. Cuomo would ‘Northam it.’ He called for due process and authorized the New York attorney general’s office to conduct an independent investigation into the sexual-harassment allegations,” Smith writes. A spokesman for Cuomo did not respond to a request for comment.
Smith also had a lot to say about Cuomo’s brother, ex-CNN star Chris Cuomo, noting that he “could sometimes be a d--k” to staffers advising his brother.
“I work in the media. You don’t,” he told his brother’s advisers last year during the throes of the scandal, Smith writes. “I know this business. You don’t.”
Chris Cuomo himself was accused of sexual misconduct by a young intern at ABC News who alleged that she was assaulted in 2011. Chris, who was fired by CNN, has denied the allegation.
Smith said Chris Cuomo was a moderating influence on his older brother, who was eager to undertake a scorched earth campaign to discredit the women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
He wanted to accuse one accuser “of having financial motivations,” Smith writes. “He wanted to expose her for hiring a notorious Albany-area ambulance chaser. He wanted to go after her character head-on.”
Smith recalls it was Chris who “finally got him to back off.”