Does it make sense for liberal CNN host Chris Cuomo to interview his liberal Democrat brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, on the network’s prime time line-up? According to the network, it’s the perfect place for two members of a prominent Democrat family to bash the Republican president. That's exactly what happened on Monday night.
Despite proclaiming, “I don’t want to talk politics” on the Coronavirus, Chris Cuomo highlighted the Twitter battle between Donald Trump and the governor: “You and the President go back and forth a little bit. He cleans it up later on in a press conference. But the substance of the back-and-forth was about what needs to happen and who needs to do it. And in a rejoinder tweet that you sent to the President, you said you'd love to be doing more. 'Give me the control of the Army Corps of Engineers and I'll take it from there.' First of all, do you have any reason to believe that you will get that kind of assistance?”
Andrew Cuomo scoffed to his younger brother: “Look, you don't know. You don't know how [the President is] going to react.” Again, despite claiming that this wasn’t going to get political, the two Cuomos found ways to do just that:
CHRIS CUOMO: And you don't have the control. It has to be the federal government. So, the question becomes it is no secret that the people around the President, let's take him out of the equation, they know that you have capacity issues. They have not enlisted the military. What does that tell you?
ANDREW CUOMO: I think they have not yet fully owned this. I think they've been watching it.
This is the second time in less than a week that Andrew Cuomo appeared on his brother’s show. The idea that CNN had no problem with Democrat Chris Cuomo interviewing Democrat Andrew Cuomo (both children of Democratic governor Mario Cuomo) is bizarre. Was Anderson Cooper not available?
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Cuomo Prime Time
3/16/2020
9:01 PM ET
CHRIS CUOMO: If you don't believe it from me, hear it from one of the many Governors, responding to this crisis. He just wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on the President needing to mobilize the military. You know him as the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, my Big Brother, of course. It's good to see you, brother. What is the reality on the ground? What is working and not working for you?
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Well the - the reality is exactly - exactly what you said, Chris. We have to engage this.
...
CHRIS CUOMO: And you don't have the control. It has to be the federal government. So, the question becomes it is no secret that the people around the President, let's take him out of the equation, they know that you have capacity issues. They have not enlisted the military. What does that tell you?
ANDREW CUOMO: I think they have not yet fully owned this. I think they've been watching it.
I think they don't understand the capacity of the federal government and what it can do. And I think they have to own it, step into it, understand that this is not working, "Every state, do your own thing, figure it out."...
9:17 PM ET
CHRIS CUOMO: The Governor, of course, is my brother, Andrew Cuomo. So, I don't want to talk politics about this. But, you know, you and the President go back and forth a little bit. He cleans it up later on in a press conference. But the substance of the back-and-forth was about what needs to happen and who needs to do it. And in a rejoinder tweet that you sent to the President, you said you'd love to be doing more. "Give me the control of the Army Corps of Engineers and I'll take it from there." First of all, do you have any reason to believe that you will get that kind of assistance?
ANDREW CUOMO: Look, you don't know. You don't know how he's going to react. And - and you are right, we go back and forth. Look, I tell him the truth, right? And I said, by the way, a week ago, I said the testing is a debacle, and we're not testing fast enough in this country. We knew China was coming in November. Why didn't we start ramping up testing? And that the federal government should decentralize testing and give it to the states. I have 200 labs in this State. Let me use my 200 labs. Why am I waiting on the FDA and CDC? And the President, to his credit, to his credit, I credit the President, he said, "You're right," and he gave New York the authority to do the testing.
...
ANDREW CUOMO: You watch those numbers, the numbers keep going up, you tighten the valve more, to get less density, less density, less spread. Curfew, I don't like the word "Curfew." Dad tried to have a curfew for me. I never got past the resentment. But I do believe you'll see more tightening--
CHRIS CUOMO: It's the least of your problems, by the way.
ANDREW CUOMO: --if the numbers don't slow.
CHRIS CUOMO: Your problems with the curfew, it's the least of your problems.
