New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accuses the Trump White House of “extortion” in a forthcoming book about his state’s struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic, the New York Daily News reports.
The claim appears in American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic, which Penguin Random House imprint Crown plans to publish next week.
Cuomo claims that he received a call from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in March, asking Cuomo for information about clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that some people, including President Trump, believed could treat Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration has said that there’s no evidence that the drug is an effective in treating the coronavirus disease.
Meadows, Cuomo writes, “strongly implied” that unless the White House received the results of the clinical trials, the Trump administration would deny the state funding to fight the pandemic.
“Government Ethics 101 tells you that’s a no-no. Quid pro quos are no bueno,” Cuomo writes in the book, using a Spanish phrase for “not good.”
Cuomo announced his book in August. Crown describes it as “the riveting story of how he took charge in the fight against COVID-19 as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic, offering hard-won lessons in leadership and his vision for the path forward.”
American Crisis is slated for publication on Oct. 13.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
