Chris Cuomo, who got fired from CNN, has fired back at the network, accusing his boss of knowing everything about his alleged involvement in ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s scandal.
Cuomo’s spokesman really threw the former anchor star’s longtime ally CNN President Jeff Zucker under the bus, by saying in a statement that the two were “widely known to be extremely close and in regular contact, including about the details of Mr. Cuomo’s support for his brother,” adding that there were no secrets about this, as other individuals besides Mr. Cuomo can attest.
The statement, however, led CNN to accuse Chris Cuomo of spreading alleged lies: “He has made a number of accusations that are patently false. This reinforces why he was terminated for violating our standards and practices, as well as his lack of candor.”
Zucker stood by Cuomo for months amid calls for his firing, but the final straw reportedly came when a pile of documents showed that the host’s behind-the-scenes meddling to help his embattled brother went far beyond what he had admitted on-air.
Zucker once called Cuomo “the perfect cable news anchor,” as he had long been one of his biggest champions at the network, having hired him as one of his first major moves after arriving there in 2013 and then promoting him to prime time in 2018.
Zucker said that Cuomo had “made a mistake” but added that suspending him would be “punishment for the sake of punishing.”
But Cuomo was eventually suspended and then fired shortly after the documents released by New York Attorney General Letitia James showed he contacted news industry sources for information and searching for details about at least one of his brother’s accusers.
And even though he was accused by a former colleague of being a harasser, he was also at the same time accused of misleading viewers with his on-air statements of support of victims of harassment.
A lawyer for the anonymous accuser, Debra Katz said that hearing the hypocrisy of Chris Cuomo’s on-air words and disgusted by his efforts to try to discredit these women, her client retained counsel to report his serious misconduct against her to CNN.
The Five weighed in on Cuomo being fired: