During the usual handoff banter between Chris “Fredo” Cuomo (PrimeTime) and Don Lemon (CNN Tonight) on Tuesday, the former flashed his penchant for physical violence when he said he wanted to “choke” and “punch” his critics at the Fox News Channel. “What could have set him off,” you might ask. Well, earlier that evening, FNC host Tucker Carlson again exposed Fredo going maskless while not social distancing in public. One could even say he was a hypocrite.
Cuomo’s roid-rage flashed when Lemon asked him about the right way to deal with his “detractors” over on “state television,” the not so clever nickname CNN has for their higher-rated competitor. “Naked choke,” he blurted out. “A punch to the sternum.” Lemon said it was best to just ignore them.
But something clearly had gotten under Fredo’s skin. Now, we can’t know for sure, but earlier in the night Carlson spent just over four and half minutes of his opening monologue proving Fredo to be a hypocrite when it came to mask-wearing in the age of coronavirus.
After playing a video of Cuomo absolutely losing his mind over President Trump not wearing a mask with no one around him and calling it “bullshit,” Carlson mocked him for the “unscripted” moment. “Standing on the White House balcony, Trump was a human bioweapon, a WMD. It was immoral and Chris Cuomo would know precisely how immoral it was because he has done it himself,” he reminded viewers.
Carlson recalled how Fredo was caught breaking his quarantine last Spring as he hung out with his family and friends while still contagious and without anyone (including himself) wearing a mask. And he assailed the elderly man who found him and called him out (click “expand”):
CARLSON: This spring, Chris Cuomo got COVID. You may have noticed; they did like 27 shows in a row about it. Cuomo told us he was quarantined in his basement, but let's be honest, there are only so many squats you can do in the mirror, it got boring after a while. So Chris Cuomo secretly left his house, took off his mask -- oh, yes, ladies and gentlemen -- and wandered around the Hamptons. While wandering, he promptly ran into this man who wondered what he was doing and ask himself. And here's what happened next.
DAVID WHELAN: And I just said "Don't you have the coronavirus? Shouldn't you be quarantined"? And I think his next words were, “what the hell do you know about this, what you know about the rules?” [SCREEN WIPE] I said, you're not supposed to be out here, nobody had gloves on, nobody had masks on.
“Okay, so it turns out Chris Cuomo doesn't think he should have to wear a mask outside,” he added as dispelled the notion that he and his show were against mask-wearing in general. “Masks are great, they have their place, surgeons wear masks in operating rooms, people were masks in elevators and crowded stores, good for them, it probably helps. We've been arguing that for six months,” he said.
But the evidence of Cuomo’s COVID hypocrisy didn’t stop there. Carlson had a picture of Fredo whipping his nose out at a swanking Long Island restaurant just this past weekend: “Chris Cuomo calls us immoral for doubting the rules and then in private he whips off his mask the second he can. Here are pictures of Chris Cuomo this weekend standing at a restaurant in Long Island, cigar in his hand, but no mask.”
“Again, we don't judge Chris Cuomo. Chris Cuomo judges us,” Carlson quipped.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Tonight
October 6, 2020
10:01:34 p.m. Eastern(…)
DON LEMON: And when someone -- after someone annoys you for a while, you know you have your detractors Chris, many of them on state television, like I do. What's the best way to handle it? You just ignore it.
CHRIS CUOMO: Naked choke.
LEMON: Just – no. Just ignore it.
CUOMO: A punch to the sternum.
LEMON: When you ignore people, that is the worst thing you can do to anyone.
(…)
Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight
October 6, 2020
8:06:34 p.m. Eastern(…)
TUCKER CARLSON: So this is what peak hysteria must look like. Cable news can't possibly get more overheated than that, you must be thinking. [Laughter] No, yes, it can, and CNN tried hard last night to top it.
Now, unfortunately, there is something of a disadvantage, their anchors aren't quite as articulate as the guys from MSNBC, the anchor you just saw [Lawrence O’Donnell] went to Harvard, the CNN anchor had to settle for Yule, and only because his dad was the governor. So, he doesn't have quite as many words to choose from when he wants to express his total outrage. Instead, he works blue and the naughty language lets you know just how mad he is.
CHRIS CUOMO: There he is. Hair blown majestically, re-shooting the scene for his own ad. “I hold rallies and I tell you to ignore masks and I rip mine off as I vanquish the virus because I am a leader. Fear not, COVID.” What a bunch of Bull Sh[bleep].
CARLSON: Whoa, naughty! That word wasn't in the prompter or anything, it just came out totally unscripted.
Once Chris Cuomo saw Donald Trump, outdoors, without a mask he just lost it. He honestly couldn't believe a president would do something that obscene. Infected with COVID, yet breathing the very air that circulates in our common atmosphere, that in the process killing millions. Standing on the White House balcony, Trump was a human bio weapon, a WMD. It was immoral and Chris Cuomo would know precisely how immoral it was because he has done it himself.
This spring, Chris Cuomo got COVID. You may have noticed; they did like 27 shows in a row about it. Cuomo told us he was quarantined in his basement, but let's be honest, there are only so many squats you can do in the mirror, it got boring after a while. So Chris Cuomo secretly left his house, took off his mask -- oh, yes, ladies and gentlemen -- and wandered around the Hamptons. While wandering, he promptly ran into this man who wondered what he was doing and ask himself. And here's what happened next.
DAVID WHELAN: And I just said "Don't you have the coronavirus? Shouldn't you be quarantined"? And I think his next words were, “what the hell do you know about this, what you know about the rules?” [Transition] I said, you're not supposed to be out here, nobody had gloves on, nobody had masks on.
CARLSON: Okay, so it turns out Chris Cuomo doesn't think he should have to wear a mask outside. Now, this is the point in the show where we wax outrage. He works on a rival network; we just can't believe he did that. We hate Chris Cuomo because he didn't wear a mask.
But we’re not going to tell you that. We’re going to tell you the truth, it's fine that Chris Cuomo didn't wear a mask outside, we are not judging him. Masks are great, they have their place, surgeons wear masks in operating rooms, people were masks in elevators and crowded stores, good for them, it probably helps. We've been arguing that for six months, before the surgeon general himself recommended masks. We thought why would masks be a bad idea? So we are not against masks, we never will be.
But wearing a mask while you ride your bike? While you jog? When you're alone in your car, while you're walking in the woods, when you're standing on the beach? That's just insane. That's an insult to science. It's an insult to common sense. Rules like that make people cynical when you force them to do unreasonable things, they will never believe you again. Rules like that help no one and yet they are ubiquitous.
In many Democratic-controlled juristic jurisdictions, masks are required outside. It's the law. You have no choice. It rules like that are not about public health. Rules like that are a form of obedience training. They’re trying to see what they can make you do. They can make you do a lot, it turns out. Most of the time we do what they tell us. We don't say anything. Partly because people like Chris Cuomo harangue us if we disobey the rules.
Chris Cuomo calls us immoral for doubting the rules and then in private he whips off his mask the second he can. Here are pictures of Chris Cuomo this weekend standing at a restaurant in Long Island, cigar in his hand, but no mask.
Again, we don't judge Chris Cuomo. Chris Cuomo judges us. And that's the point.
(…)
