CNN Prime Time host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo was in rare form Monday night as he repeatedly slammed his fist on the desk and shouted about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). Fredo had a massive problem with DeSantis’s mission to allow people to choose whether or not to wear a mask or get vaccinated. Fredo raged at the idea of people having the ability to choose for themselves suggested the real choice was up to the government to make.
Cuomo, who suffered from what he called “COVID brain,” thought DeSantis was acting hypocritically by fining schools that mandated children wear masks. “The irony here, at the same time the right is slamming Biden for fining companies who don't adhere to vaccine mandates, whether it's masks for kids or the vaccines,” he whined.
He went on to sneer about how “DeSantis keeps trying to frame this as a matter of choice. While taking away the choice of local officials to do what works.”
So, according to Fredo, you don’t have a choice about whether or not to wear a mask or get vaccinated. That “choice” belonged to government officials to mandate it for you. He even played several clips of DeSantis arguing it was a parent’s right to choose if their kids wore masks in schools, as if it was a terrible thing.
“Yes, but choices have consequences. Choose not to get your kids vaccinated, you don't get to go to public schools or pretty much any school. Right,” he declared (ignoring the fact there were religious and medical exemptions).
He also ignored the fact it was a so-called “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and was whining that he, a vaccinated person, was being forced to wear a mask. “You don't have to take the vaccine. That's not what's being done here. But you don't get to not do what keeps everybody else safe and then get to live the way that you want to because you are forcing the rest of us not to live the way that we want.”
In reality, Fredo had been caught numerous times breaking masking rules and even his COVID quarantine. So, he’s not really concerned about all that. He was just putting on a show for the camera.
Before making his asinine argument about “choice,” Fredo claimed DeSantis was spreading COVID misinformation even though someone else had said it. “Florida's Ron DeSantis just allowed some wild COVID misinformation to spread from his own microphone,” he asserted.
The misinformation in question came from a utility worker who spoke in opposition to vaccines at a press conference and inaccurately described how mRNA vaccines worked. Fredo claimed it was evidence DeSantis was “choosing to prolong the pain merely in the name of politics.”
Speaking of COVID misinformation, in 2020, Cuomo allowed his program to be a platform for crazy con artist and fired Florida Health Department worker, Rebekah Jones to spew her lies about DeSantis supposedly hiding COVID death numbers. Meanwhile, the one hiding death numbers was Chris’s brother, disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who covered up nursing home and other COVID deaths.
It was just a few months ago that Fredo suggested no one really knew where COVID came from. And as for bogus COVID cures, last summer, he blamed President Trump for a false cure his wife was peddling on her new age health quackery website. The Daily Show even mocked him for following his wife’s advice: bathing in bleach and taking herbs.
He even went to a commercial Monday night asking: “Do these defiant governors, who are all on the right, really want to prolong the pandemic?”
Chris needed to get his “COVID brain” checked out. This is CNN.
Chris Cuomo’s smears and misinformation were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from BMW and Panera Bread. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
September 13, 2021
9:27:43 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: To another governor saga. Florida's Ron DeSantis just allowed some wild COVID misinformation to spread from his own microphone. And he's issuing new threats to those following presidential guidance to help end this pandemic. I want to take you through this. Don't say DeSantis is a dummy. He's an ivy league educated lawyer who served this country. He knows what he's doing. The question is, why is he doing it? Next.
(…)
9:31:59 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: The danger that COVID poses to your kids and mine is rising, quote, “exponentially.” Okay? The American Academy of Pediatrics reports childhood cases increased 240 percent just since July. We know why. They're going back to school. And kids now account for almost 29 percent of all cases in this country. We know why. Because they're not vaccinated, many of them, and they're going back to school.
Yet, too many on the right are choosing to prolong the pain merely in the name of politics. Case in point, Mr. Don't Fauci Florida himself, Governor Ron DeSantis. Tellingly chose to stand silently by while this nonsense took place at his own press conference today. Listen to this.
DARRIS FRIEND (electrical utility employee): The vaccine changes your RNA so for me, that's a problem. So, I'm here with you folks. We don't want to have the vaccine. It's about our freedom and liberty.
CUOMO: DeSantis knows that's BS. He's a smart guy. He's got experts giving him the truth. He's Harvard and Yale educated. He's a lawyer. He knows. Which may be why he started staring at the ground and shoving his hand in his pocket.
When it was done, and he returned to the mic, did he correct what that guy was just saying about how the vaccine changes your genetics? No. He shook the guy's hand and thanked him for coming. And that is beneath the office.
All of this, by the way, comes as DeSantis is making it harder to do the one thing we know that works to get people vaccinated, mandates. 77 percent of workers say they will or have gotten the shot if their employer requires it.
Look, I don't know about you. I am not in any hurry to have the government tell me how to live my life, but what was plan B here? In a state with less than 10 percent of ICU beds available, DeSantis is now threatening to fine cities and counties that refuse to let a minority of both parties dictate the danger the rest of us face. And instead, require employees get vaccinated.
The irony here, at the same time the right is slamming Biden for fining companies who don't adhere to vaccine mandates, whether it's masks for kids or the vaccines, DeSantis keeps trying to frame this as a matter of choice. While taking away the choice of local officials to do what works.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): It's our belief that this should be a parent's choice.
[Transition]
What’s basically a personal choice.
[Transition]
I think it's their choice.
[Transition]
I think that should be the choice of the parent.
CUOMO: Yes, but choices have consequences. Choose not to get your kids vaccinated, you don't get to go to public schools or pretty much any school. Right?
You don't have to take the vaccine. That's not what's being done here. But you don't get to not do what keeps everybody else safe and then get to live the way that you want to because you are forcing the rest of us not to live the way that we want.
The choice DeSantis is making, okay, just as he stood silent in the face of BS he knows isn't true, is to play this to advantage even if it works for the disadvantage of so many that are under his care.
While the number of deaths in his state keep heading in the wrong direction, he is being defiant of what is right. And it raises a question. Do these defiant governors who are all on the right really want to prolong the pandemic? Do they really believe it won't come back to haunt them one day?
(…)
