Proving that the facts didn’t matter when the mission was to destroy President Trump and right-leaning media, CNN host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo raged at folks who cited reports and intelligence sources that suggested the coronavirus might have escaped a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Monday segment on Cuomo PrimeTime was filled with hyperbole, smears, and lies against those people, but Cuomo himself had once had “breaking news” reporting those same claims.
At the top of the segment, Cuomo came back from a commercial break and claimed that the only reason Trump was holding China responsible for the pandemic was that “his puppy-dog-puppets and his cronies came after China.”
As part of his argument, he played back-to-back clips from April 14’s edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight (click “expand”):
TUCKER CARLSON (April 14): The Chinese may have unleashed a global pandemic on the rest of us. [Transition] Funded in part by you, by U.S. taxpayers, through the National Institutes of Health.
CUOMO: Liked him better with the bowtie. Then it got an echo from his buddies in Congress.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL) (April 14): The NIH gives this $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. [Transition] I’ve called on Secretary Azar to immediately halt this grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“China bad, China scary, China make virus to kill us,” Cuomo declared in a caveman-like voice, mocking Carlson and Congressman Gaetz. But that was a lie. They never said China made the virus. Carlson has been very specific in saying that the information does not suggest that. (That first clip was also deceptively edited).
Cuomo did his caveman voice again, after playing an April 17 clip of Newsmax correspondent Emerald Robinson asking Trump about the Obama administration sending the lab money. “China bad, Obama bad. China and Obama very bad. That's what they’re selling you,” he sneered.
Note the dates for those two clips (April 14 and 17). Because this was the “BREAKING NEWS” headline he had for Cuomo PrimeTime on April 15:
All right. We have breaking news on our watch. It is a very provocative headline. I'm just getting it. Let's go through it together in real time. Here's the headline. "The United States is pursuing the theory that the virus started in a Chinese lab, not a market."
And while the news he was breaking didn’t say the virus was engineered, he touched on it anyway:
I know the internet is rife with conspiracy theories and concerns that this was something that was worked on, that was designed. And that's why we don't understand it. And, you know, as we had to learn from the White House backwards, COVID-19 isn't the 19th version of anything. It was discovered in 2019. That's what it means. But beyond the coding of it, we know very little and part of the curiosity is, we don't know a lot because somebody changed a virus structure enough to make it a mystery for us.
The fact that he once reported that the virus might have come from a lab didn’t stop Cuomo from blasting others who did the same, and lying about what they were saying. “Well, his [Trump’s] guy, okay, who runs our national intelligence [DNI Richard Grenell], all right, the director whose main credential is being Trump's guy says, ‘we don't know that China created this virus in a lab.’”
Again, none of the people Cuomo raged against had said the virus was “created.” That was the liberal media’s lie. Because two things can be true at the same time, it wasn’t created and samples existed at a lab for study. There was also a Fox News report from White House correspondent John Roberts on May 4, which cited a “senior intelligence official” who said most of the intel agencies believed the virus came from the lab.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo PrimeTime
April 15, 2020
9:37:55 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: All right. We have breaking news on our watch. It is a very provocative headline. I'm just getting it. Let's go through it together in real time. Here's the headline. "The United States is pursuing the theory that the virus started in a Chinese lab, not a market."
I know the internet is rife with conspiracy theories and concerns that this was something that was worked on, that was designed. And that's why we don't understand it. And, you know, as we had to learn from the White House backwards, COVID-19 isn't the 19th version of anything. It was discovered in 2019. That's what it means.
But beyond the coding of it, we know very little and part of the curiosity is, we don't know a lot because somebody changed a virus structure enough to make it a mystery for us. Now, what is behind the headline, all right? I think we're going to have to back off about a half a step.
Here's why. U.S. intel and national security officials say the United States government continues to investigate whether the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory, not a wet market. This is according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. So, they are investigating. It's not as strong as they believe that's what happened. They're investigating a theory. So it doesn't take us close enough, but what does it do?
Well, it starts to push holes in the idea of why was this lab in Wuhan? One theory is, well it's in Wuhan because it's a catchmen area, food comes from all over China into this area with these markets so it's a logical place to be.
But if they're investigating it and they can get sources, other sources told CNN that U.S. intel hasn't been able to corroborate the theory but is trying to discern whether someone was infected in the lab or was about poor handling.
So, this is a story to watch. I know many are curious about it. New information. They are looking at it at the U.S. intel level. As we get more, you'll get more.
(…)
CNN’s Cuomo PrimeTime
May 11, 2020
9:15:57 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: Remember, no one has praised how China handled coronavirus in our government more than Trump did. Dozens of times since this started he talked about their transparency, and what a good job they were doing, until they needed someone to blame. It didn't work for them politically anymore and then his puppy-dog-puppets and his cronies came after China.
TUCKER CARLSON (April 14): The Chinese may have unleashed a global pandemic on the rest of us. [Transition] Funded in part by you, by U.S. taxpayers, through the National Institutes of Health.
CUOMO: Liked him better with the bowtie. Then it got an echo from his buddies in Congress.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL) (April 14): The NIH gives this $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. [Transition] I’ve called on Secretary Azar to immediately halt this grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
CUOMO: China bad, China scary, China make virus to kill us. Even at his own briefings.
EMERALD ROBINSON (Newsmax) (April 17): The NIH under the Obama administration in 2015 gave that lab $3.7 million in a grant. Why would the U.S. give a grant like that to China?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million? I've been hearing about that. And we've instructed that if any grants are going to that area, we're looking at it literally about an hour ago and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly, but it was granted quite a while ago. They were granted a substantial amount of money. We're going to look at it and take a look.
CUOMO: China bad, Obama bad. China and Obama very bad. That's what they’re selling you. Okay. What do the facts tell us?
Well, his guy, okay, who runs our national intelligence, all right, the director whose main credential is being Trump's guy says, ‘we don't know that China created this virus in a lab.’ Pompeo, all right, now-- You talk about loyal to the President, Pompeo's got to be at the top of the list. ‘We don't know for a fact that that's what happened.’ But, boy, does it sound good, boy, is it satisfying to find a bad guy, right?
So, they did pull money. The money that had been planned for an American company called echohealth, or Ecohealth, that has an alliance working with labs all over the world including the virology lab in Wuhan.
(…)
