CNN’s Chris Cuomo battled his critics on Twitter after he dared them to “name one” instance in which he has denied facts to fit a narrative.
The drama unfolded Thursday morning after the primetime host tweeted that “truth is now at the mercy of what people want to be true.”
A Twitter user fired back, “The story of your life, you constantly deny facts you don’t like.”
“Name one? Tick tock,” Mr. Cuomo replied.
The tweet sparked a flurry of responses, some of which Mr. Cuomo replied to directly. After someone tweeted, “Wuhan lab leak,” referring to the possible origins of the novel coronavirus, Mr. Cuomo responded: “Reported as early as any that virus origin was in question. I was open to it when you all were listening to a man tell you the virus was a hoax. When he was praising the chinese for how they handled covid-19. Ask pompeo where the proof he promised is. Remember that?”
Someone then suggested Mr. Cuomo had been dishonest in his coverage of the Democratic National Committee-funded, anti-Trump Steele dossier, to which the host fired back: “Always reported as subject to verification. Meetings with trumpers and russia-connected that they knew better than to take…where they solicited oppo…are a matter of fact. That’s collusion…which is a behavior not a crime. Reported as such. Next?”
Mr. Cuomo also took aim at a Twitter user who told him to “simmer down” and called him “Fredo,” a fictional character from “The Godfather.”
“Want a common enemy??” Mr. Cuomo replied. “This is likely a fake account assembled to play on sensitivities…prejudices…fault lines. Someone is doing this to us on purpose. All of us…left right and reasonable. Putin parrots same points as election disinfo efforts. Cant we focus on this?”
Mr. Cuomo did not respond to the many tweets calling out his past coverage of his scandal-plagued older brother, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The CNN host apologized last month after it was reported he advised his brother with possible strategies on how to respond to multiple sexual harassment allegations. According to The Washington Post, the CNN host advised the governor to take a defiant position and not to resign.
CNN said last month that while the anchor’s actions were unprofessional, he would not be disciplined.
The brothers appeared on-air together several times at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the CNN host has since been banned from covering his brother, who is under federal investigation for his handling of nursing home COVID-19 death data and is facing two investigations by the state’s attorney general for allegations of sexual harassment and whether he misused state resources to write his book about the pandemic. The State Assembly is also conducting an impeachment inquiry.
