On Monday, CNN’s PrimeTime host, congenital liar, and former coronavirus patient Chris “Fredo” Cuomo lectured Americans about daring to leave their homes to get fresh air amid the coronavirus pandemic even though he broke quarantine on April 8. For Tuesday’s show, Fredo was back and up to no good, implying President Trump was comfortable with dead Americans as a result of reopening the economy.
Along with Fredo callously discounting America’s economic and mental pain, he again palled around with brother and Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) as someone “trying to hold back the tide the President is surfing.” In other words, it’s lobbying for New York’s approach to go national (a bias the indefatigable Steve Krakauer tweeted about here).
Chris Cuomo began by decrying Trump’s “mixed madness” and griped that Trump “acknowledge[ed] that re-opening our country will likely kill more of us, but we got to get our country back.”
He also signaled that Trump’s response failed to thwart “pain and death,” boasting that his brother would soon appear and provide what “[h]e says” would be “a safer and better way.”
Hilariously, Cuomo insisted the following between that nonsense and a false attack on Trump as content with death: “Now, look, matter what happens, our standard must remain the same — facts and fierce accountability for the same, together as ever as one.”
Chris then brought in Andrew for yet another soft interview, refusing to ask him about why elderly New Yorkers with coronavirus were placed in nursing homes, why restrictions like New York’s should be replicated in states with different pictures, and/or the announcement of an additional 1,600 nursing home deaths from the virus.
And yet, Chris repeatedly insisted that he has always ensured “fierce accountability” with his brother.
Sadly, the interview started with their usual banter as both reasserted the lie that Chris stayed in his basement while fighting the virus.
It didn’t get any better as four of the CNN host’s first five questions reiterated his opposition against reopening (anywhere) anytime soon (even though he’s refused to obey lockdowns) (click “expand”):
A couple of weeks ago, you were here and you said, look, death is death. Nothing else equates with that. Economic realities we can deal with. It was very popular when you said it, went viral all over the place online. Two weeks later, it seems that argument is losing. The economic need, a desire, and the fatigue of being home is starting to win. Over half the states are doing some kind of re-opening. Is it time for you to shift your re-opening?
(….)
The idea that it is the price of freedom that is the price of getting our country back, that it is the price of letting families get their money right, get their jobs back, have their not dreams destroyed, how do you rationalize the price?
(….)
But with everyday that people re-open and people in New York start to see that, there’ll be more pressure and the calculation of, well, when is enough of a decrease enough? And you say you have a plan. Everybody has a plan. At the end of the day, all of the plans wind up revealing some kind of exposure. What makes your plan better than any other plan?
(….)
Politics gets moved by emotion more than it does fact. You have a great saying that perception is often reality, especially in politics. People start to blame your deliberateness with their pain. You’re going to pay a price for that your fallback will be data, testing and I know you’re making advances. I know that advances are being made around the region and you’re working with other states now to help with that, but isn’t it fair statement that even in the lighter regions in New York state in terms of traffic, you don’t have enough capacity to tell anybody with any degree of certainty, here’s how many cases you have on a daily basis. We could turn it around in 24 hours. We can find out who anybody is sick touched and make it safe anywhere, I mean, just to be honest?
The interview dithered through another segment until the final five minutes or so when the banter shifted to Fredo boasting about his brother’s newfound fame. If you want to subject yourself to their nonsense, feel free to click “expand.” If not, no shame here:
C. CUOMO: Let me ask you something. You seem to have changed through this process. You sound, you know, different. You know, you take on all that’s happening in the federal government. Some say it’s evidence of a shift in ambition. Some say that going on shows like Ellen, where she’s pumping your head up with helium about how great you are, the cover of Rolling Stone, that you now, as we used to say in the neighborhood, think who you are, do you believe there’s been a shift in your ambitions and in your sense of yourself because of all these new friends you seem to have?
A. CUOMO: Some say I shouldn’t come on this show because you harass me —
C. CUOMO: Too much fierce accountability.
A. CUOMO: — and provoke me.
C. CUOMO: Can’t take it? Want a pat on the back.
A. CUOMO: And no, it’s not fierce accountability. It’s person — it’s ad-hominem, ad-hominem attacks.
C. CUOMO: Don’t speak Spanish on my show.
A. CUOMO: Ellen — first, I’m a fan of Ellen. To do Ellen’s show was a pleasure for me. I’m a big fan of Ellen. Yes, she said nice things about me —
C. CUOMO: Yes, she did.
A. CUOMO: — which she didn’t say about you.
C. CUOMO: Nope
A. CUOMO: — but she was just telling the truth and nothing about me has changed. I haven’t been in the basement. I haven’t had my wife sheer my hair out of resentment. None of that has happened to me. I’m just doing my job which is what I’ve always done. I’m the same old, same old.
(….)
C. CUOMO: Do you think you are an attractive person now because you’re single and ready to mingle? Do you really think you are some desirable, single person, and this is not just people’s pain coming out of them?
A. CUOMO: I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
C. CUOMO: Listen, you’ve got an answer for anything. You’re feeling pretty good about yourself these days, aren’t you? Here’s what I like about you. You are ready for a fight, and you know that you have a long way to go, and I know that’s what drives your passion about sticking with these positions cause you know it’s a long game and I respect that and I know it as well and I wish you well. I appreciate you coming here to ask the tough questions. We won’t always want to be able to do it. The dynamic will shift and you’re going to be held accountable for what happens in ways that your brother just can’t do it. But now, it is good to get more out of you, I think, than other people because you know I know the answers to a lot of these questions, and I know their plans.
To review, what did we see here? We had more lying from Fredo, a strawman image of the President, ignoring how Trump has repeatedly talked about how painful this pandemic has been for him, free publicity for Andrew, and another example of CNN not looking out for the people.
In other words, perhaps CNN should worry about keeping their own house clean before lobbing grenades at Fox News.