The most trusted name in news has terminated the most untrusted name in news.
Reeling from reports that Prime Time anchor Chris Cuomo worked as a part-time adviser to his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, CNN fired the leftist talker on Saturday.
Last week, the network learned that Chris Cuomo’s role in his disgraced brother’s defense against sexual-assault and harassment allegations was greater than Cuomo admitted months ago. The network suspended Cuomo indefinitely.
CNN hired a law firm to investigate the material released by New York’s attorney general in connection with the advisory role Cuomo played. Even more damning material about the anchor surfaced.
Thus did Cuomo’s career peddling Democrat Party talking points on the network end.
Beginning of the End
Known as Fredo because people joke that, like Fredo in the Godfather franchise, he is the stupid, weaker brother in the Cuomo Family led by Andrew, the anchor’s troubles began in August.
After denying he was an advisor to his brother but confessing that he offered ad hoc advice, he stopped what Vanity Fair described as the on-air “recurring schtick” with this brother that CNN “questionably embraced” at the beginning of the China Virus pandemic. The governor appeared on the program because he was, we were led to believe, teaching the world how to handle it. That was untrue. The governor, who later resigned because of the sex accusations, bungled the virus response. His orders to send virus patients into nursing homes and residential homes for the mentally retarded killed thousands.
The Washington Post called the pair’s act a “comedy routine.”
Handsy Andy’s victims weren’t laughing, but in any case, Fredo lied when he said he wasn’t an advisor for his brother.
Last week, as The New American reported, that truth came out. The Empire State’s attorney general released text messages between Chris Cuomo and his brother’s top torpedo, Melissa DeRosa. Those messages make clear that Fredo was ready to go to the mattresses for his brother.
Chris Cuomo’s messages included detailed advice and statements he wrote for his brother, who used some of the material. “Please let me help you with the prep,” Fredo wrote. “You need to trust me” because “we are making mistakes we can’t afford.”
The mistake became Fredo’s.
CNN suspended him indefinitely pending further investigation.
So Long, Fredo
That probe got Cuomo the pink slip.
“The law firm retained by the network submitted its findings on Friday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, and CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker fired Cuomo on Saturday,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported, with this statement:
Chris Cuomo was suspended earlier this week pending further evaluation of new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother’s defense. We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately. While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.
CNN hasn’t divulged that new information, but the New York Times reported that Debra Katz, the attorney for sex-assault hoaxtress Christine Blasey Ford, told the network about an “an allegation of sexual misconduct against” the disreputable anchor:
Ms. Katz said in a statement on Saturday that the allegation against the anchor, which was made by a former junior colleague at another network, was “unrelated to the Gov. Andrew Cuomo matter.”
It was not fully clear what role the allegation played in CNN’s decision to dismiss Mr. Cuomo. Ms. Katz is also the lawyer for Charlotte Bennett, a onetime aide to Andrew Cuomo who accused the former governor in February of sexual harassment.
Cuomo denies the allegation.
In September, he was forced to discuss an allegation from a former colleague that he grabbed her fanny at a bar 16 years ago. Cuomo claimed he apologized at the time, and the “interaction not sexual in nature.”
Volatile Behavior
Yet Cuomo, who spent four years attacking President Trump for his putative moral failings, has been a liability for the leftist network for some time. CNN has protected the mega-wealthy Democrat “journalist” despite his involvement in one embarrassing scandal after another.
Last year, stricken with the China virus, he threatened a cyclist on Long Island who had called him out for violating his brother’s quarantine order.
Two years ago, he threatened to beat up a bar patron who called him Fredo, and also enjoyed priority China Virus testing thanks to his powerful brother.
Whether another of the major leftist networks will hire him is unknown. If one does, perhaps Fredo will have learned a lesson. As a “journalist,” he better never take sides with the family again.
