For a couple of days now, CNN Prime Time host Chris Cuomo has been trying to have his cake and eat it too as he tried to bash Republicans by suggesting they were crazy conspiracy theorists for pointing to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for the COVID pandemic; while being forced to acknowledge that even well-respected scientists and the intelligence community were leaning that way.
But on Tuesday, he had a mighty Fredo moment by suggesting that neither he nor anyone else really knew where the virus came from.
Before bringing on a Yale immunobiologist to discuss the matter, he teased it by trying to equate talk of a possible lab leak to police brutality and “creating division through disinformation.” “Like what else,” he rhetorically asked his audience. “COVID.”
He went on to seemingly question what we knew about where it began at all. “Where did COVID start? Do you know? I don't know. I do know that everybody is now saying it had to come out of this lab, which somehow is a suggestion they did it to us on purpose,” he chided, conflating a lab leak with intent.
“So, let's go back to zero on this, because I'm trying to make it better and I actually think I was adding to the confusion,” he declared. “Let's go back to zero. Let's bring in a top COVID researcher who will tell us, if you want to know the answer to this, here’s how you go about finding it. Next!”
When he finally came back from the commercial break, Cuomo proclaimed, “[w]e put some rare air out there” and suggested no one knew what kicked off the pandemic: “I don't know what caused COVID. And I don't think anyone else does in this country, if they're being honest.”
It was similar to a ridiculous assertion Fredo made in March 2020, when he was roid-raging at then-President Trump and said COVID “could have come from anywhere.”
Back on Tuesday, he lashed out at the “right” for continuing to blame China for the pandemic and scrutinizing the lab as purely “agenda” peddling:
See, but you know what's easier than figuring it out? Making assumptions, playing with little bits of fact, to forward an agenda. On the political right, you'll certainly see it but you may see it on the far-left as well, we just haven't. But on the right, they're all about it.
And his concocted reason? Because the right loved Trump and attacking Asians in the streets:
Because the more this is about China being sneaky, the less it is about our leadership failing under Trump. So, the by-product of that is fueling hate toward innocent people of Asian descent. You know that that's a reason why we've had an uptick in the assaults. But, it's all about the game.
Back in reality, it was about holding China accountable and the attacks on Asians were happening in Democratic strongholds like New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
And in an example of Cuomo trying to have it both ways, he highlighted how Dr. Anthony Fauci had his questions about the lab too:
On the global stage, you heard us discuss China's cover-up on the show last night. Dr. Fauci says we need to know. He never thought he did know, he hasn’t changed his mind, hasn't come around to anything. He wants to know just like everybody else and he doesn’t.
“Even as the World Health Alliance meets right now, they're not even thinking about this question. Why not,” Cuomo also questioned.
Even the Yale immunobiologist, Akiko Iwasaki told Fredo we needed more information because China wasn’t being truthful.
Chris “Fredo” Cuomo’s ridiculous analysis was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Uber and Carvana. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
May 25, 2021
9:47:01 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: All right, we’re going to stay on these questions about how we fix policing, how we get things better, things that are creating division through disinformation. Like what else? COVID. Where did COVID start? Do you know? I don't know. I do know that everybody is now saying it had to come out of this lab, which somehow is a suggestion they did it to us on purpose.
So, let's go back to zero on this, because I'm trying to make it better and I actually think I was adding to the confusion. Let's go back to zero. Let's bring in a top COVID researcher who will tell us, if you want to know the answer to this, here’s how you go about finding it. Next!
(…)
9:51:30 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS CUOMO: We put some rare air out there. I don't know what caused COVID. And I don't think anyone else does in this country, if they're being honest. And I do believe we owe it to the almost 600,000 Americans that this disease took from us and their families and loved ones to figure out the reason.
See, but you know what's easier than figuring it out? Making assumptions, playing with little bits of fact, to forward an agenda. On the political right, you'll certainly see it but you may see it on the far-left as well, we just haven't. But on the right, they're all about it. Why?
Because the more this is about China being sneaky, the less it is about our leadership failing under Trump. So, the by-product of that is fueling hate toward innocent people of Asian descent. You know that that's a reason why we've h
On the global stage, you heard us discuss China's cover-up on the show last night. Dr. Fauci says we need to know. He never thought he did know, he hasn’t changed his mind, hasn't come around to anything. He wants to know just like everybody else and he doesn’t.
Even as the World Health Alliance meets right now, they're not even thinking about this question. Why not?
One of the scientists joining the push for answers is my next guest, Akiko Iwasaki, it’s good to have you, a professor of immunobiology at Yale.
(…)
