New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s book sales have something in common with his job-approval rating: they’re both tanking amid claims of sexual misconduct and the nursing home deaths scandal.
“America’s Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” cratered to 300 copies sold in October.
Kristen McLean, an analyst with NPD research group, told Bloomberg News in an email that Mr. Cuomo’s latest sales are a “precipitous drop” even when taking a memoir’s natural attrition rate into account.
The Democrat’s book sold nearly 46,000 copies and was previously moving numbers in the low-thousands off the shelves per week.
“Of course we cannot confirm why it’s dropped,” Ms. McLean wrote. “We will leave that question to others.”
The sales mirror a downward job-approval ratings drop from 71% last April to 38% this week in an Emerson College/WPIX-TV/NewsNation poll of New York voters.
Regardless, Mr. Cuomo has responded to sexual misconduct claims by three women by telling reporters that he “never touched anyone inappropriately.”
“I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable,” he said Wednesday as critics called on him to resign. “It was unintentional, and I truly and deeply apologize for it. Frankly, I am embarrassed by it. That’s not easy to say, but that’s the truth. … I will be the better for this experience.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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