In his first television interview since he was fired in December, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo denied trying to manipulate the media coverage of his brother, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
Andrew Cuomo resigned in August 2021 after an independent investigation from the attorney general’s office found he sexually harassed at least 11 women.
In an hour-long interview with News Nation’s Dan Abrams, Chris Cuomo announced that he would be returning to TV with a prime-time talk show on the network. It is his first professional stint since he was fired by CNN last year.
Mr Abrams addressed the matter headlong and asked: “Let’s start with the issue of, ‘I’ve never made calls to the press about my brother’s situation.’ You did, right?”
“No,” Mr Cuomo replied. “I never contacted any media who were covering my brother to try to affect their coverage. I talk to people in the media all the time.”
“You said ‘I never made calls to the press about my brother’s situation,’” Mr Abrams further pressed Mr Cuomo. “[But] you did make calls to the press about your brother’s situation.”
He responded: “But I think the distinction has a meaningful difference. The concern would be not that I called you and said ‘What do you think’s going on here?’ It’s me calling you and saying ‘Hey, tonight in your segment, I hope you remember that.’”
“That is different,” Mr Abrams admitted.
Mr Abrams also asked Mr Cuomo if he had any hard feelings for his brother Andrew since he had to face the consequences of the allegations against him.
“I am very proud of my brother. I love my brother and I’m proud of him for the struggle,” Mr Cuomo replied. “I learned things about my brother, I learned things about my family — that makes me proud of him — to have to deal with the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Mr Cuomo was dismissed by CNN in December after he was found to have used his position in the media to help his brother attempt to navigate the sexual misconduct scandal that eventually brought his long reign as the governor of New York to an unceremonious end.
The attorney general found that Mr Cuomo crossed normal journalistic lines of objectivity in public affairs, reaching out to sources and other journalists to see if there were further accusers planning to step forward, as well as conducting research on various accusers.
According to the documents, he also texted a top governor’s aide that he “had a lead on the wedding girl”, a reference to Anna Ruch, who accused Andrew Cuomo of making her uncomfortable when he kissed her at a wedding in 2019.
Andrew Cuomo has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct and has earlier said: “I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.”
On Tuesday, Chris Cuomo told Mr Abrams that he was not a victim of “cancel culture” but was subjected to a “purity test” by the rest of the media.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been a victim of anything ever in my life…I don’t feel sorry for myself,” he said. “Everything I know about the situation tells me that of course there’s a conflict of interest but people got that. Nobody thought I was interviewing my brother the way I was interviewing other people. That wasn’t the point or purpose of those things.”
Following his termination, Mr Cuomo filed a Demand for Arbitration against CNN for $125m, seeking to recover the remainder of the money on his contract with the network and lost wages due to damage to his reputation.
