CNN’s Chris “Fredo” Cuomo kicked off Monday’s Prime Time by finally addressing his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) multiple sexual harassment allegations, just in time for a third young woman to accuse him of unwanted sexual advances. The announcement? That he’s not going to be covering any of the allegations against him.
Two weeks ago, news broke that CNN had conveniently decided to reinstitute a ban to keep Chris from reporting on Andrew’s nursing home deaths scandal. The timing turned out to be perfect as ever since then, there’s been a steady drip of young women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against the Governor.
“Before we start tonight, let me say something that I am sure is very obvious to you who watch my show, and thank you for that. You’re straight with me. I’ll be straight with you,” Chris said to his audience. “Obviously, I am aware of what is going on with my brother. And obviously, I cannot cover it because he is my brother.”
Chris then pledged that CNN would continue to cover his scandalous brother while he would cover other important stories:
Now, of course, CNN has to cover it. They have covered it extensively and they will continue to do so. I have always cared very deeply about these issues and profoundly so. I just wanted to tell you that.
There is a lot of news that is going on that matters also. So let's get after that.
From there, he immediately took to bashing the weekend’s CPAC gathering in Orlando, Florida. “This convention over the weekend was more like a coven. There were all kinds of wicked notions of how to avenge Trump's loss. Notions of how to punish those in the party who are not already on bended knee,” he sneered.
Of course, this came after Chris helped to boost his brother’s image during the early days of the pandemic by doing multiple doting interviews with him. The most infamous interview came just after the nursing home deaths scandal first broke in May 2020. Chris completely ignored the story while he pulled out giant cotton swaps to mock the size of his brother’s nose because he took a televised COVID test.
It took over a month for Chris to bring up the scandal during an interview with Andrew. “Nursing homes, people died there. They didn't have to, it was mismanaged and the operators have been given immunity. What do you have to say about that,” he weakly pressed.
After the fact, Chris admitted to not being objective when covering his family. “Unusual times, right? He's my big brother, I love him, of course, I'm not objective, but let's call it straight. Look at the state,” he said.
As expected, Chris’s Monday comments drew a lot of criticism and analysis on social media. But National Review editor Rich Lowry may have said it best while quoting Fredo: “‘Obviously I can’t cover it because he is my brother’ would have been a pretty good rule from the beginning.”
This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
March 1, 2021
9:00:23 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: I am Chris Cuomo, and welcome to Prime Time.
Before we start tonight, let me say something that I am sure is very obvious to you who watch my show, and thank you for that. You’re straight with me. I’ll be straight with you.
Obviously, I am aware of what is going on with my brother. And obviously, I cannot cover it because he is my brother.
Now, of course, CNN has to cover it. They have covered it extensively and they will continue to do so. I have always cared very deeply about these issues and profoundly so. I just wanted to tell you that.
There is a lot of news that is going on that matters also. So let's get after that.
This convention over the weekend was more like a coven. There were all kinds of wicked notions of how to avenge Trump's loss. Notions of how to punish those in the party who are not already on bended knee.
(…)
