Opinion | The Cuomo/Trump Playbook for Surviving a Scandal

By JACK SHAFER05/21/2021 02:04 PM EDTLink CopiedJack Shafer is Politico’s senior media writer.The brothers Cuomo, Andrew and Chris, just keep stepping in it, breaking rules they don’t think should apply to them, deflecting tough questions about their conduct and sidestepping the ethical messes their behaviors have spilled. “I did not do what has been alleged,” Andrew responded to the condemnations.Little brother Chris, who anchors an evening show on CNN, was next on the scandal tumbrel. In March, the Washington Post and the Albany Times-Union reported that Andrew’s administration had authorized special treatment from the state of New York’s priority Covid-testing program in the spring of 2020 for Cuomo family members, including Chris. But CNN gave Chris Cuomo a bye for his line-cutting, saying “he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would,” and Andrew suffered only slightly. As the Washington Post reported Thursday evening, on multiple occasions in early 2021, Chris gave Andrew advice on how to respond to the sexual harassment allegations. Clinton turns sheepish, sometimes angry, but finally draws his head and tender parts inside himself like a tortoise and lets his critics pound on his shell until they tire.What makes the Cuomos and people like Trump feel so bulletproof? Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Andrew stands to make $5.1 million from his book about the pandemic, and at a Thursday press conference he shot down a question that accused him of profiteering off of dead New Yorkers.