NewsNation host and former longtime CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo is learning the hard way that parroting some of Donald Trump’s talking points isn’t going to end well and protect him from online ridicule.
During Monday night’s broadcast of his show, not only did Cuomo bait progressive commentator Medhi Hasan with a question that he was wholly unprepared for but he also denied calling the Capitol riot an insurrection at the time, which he did, and then again denied that it was actually an insurrection during the discussion.
Cuomo started off by asking Hasan a question in regards to Charlie Kirk’s death, “How would you analyze what you’re hearing in response to this murder from the left?”
Trump’s White House and several news outlets have described the 22-year-old suspect in Kirk’s killing as a “leftist.”
Hasan was surprised by Cuomo’s question. “From the left?” That was only a signal of the the brutal takedown Hasan had prepared for Cuomo.
“I mean, just listening to the clips you played from the Trump administration, we’re in a very dark moment, very McCarthy moment right now. Listening to your show, you’ve made a lot of good points. The biggest point, I think you’ve glossed over is the crackdown on free speech, this targeting of people for their views,” Hasan, a writer, former MSNBC host, and the founder of Zeteo media company, pointed out.
“I thought Charlie Kirk was supposed to be a free speech martyr. Why is the right using his death to crack down on free speech and American rights and go after this amorphous left?” he questioned, before calling out Vice President JD Vance for lying when he hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show” Monday.
While Hasan was only half way through his takedown, social media was more than impressed and disgusted with Cuomo’s framing.
“WTF HAPPENED TO CHRIS CUOMO? …I am speechless… WTF IS GOING ON???????,” Janel Townes wrote on Threads.
“Chris Cuomo was absolutely unprepared for this and it’s glorious to watch him stutter,’ added John Michael.
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Hasan continued, “JD Vance lied today on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ when he said the statistics are clear that this is a left-wing problem. It’s the exact reverse. Right, exact reverse.” He proceeded to cite a slew of statistics proving his point.
“The single biggest day of political violence, Chris, in our lifetimes in this country, was January 6, 2021, when right-wing extremists attacked the Capitol and injured police officers. They were ideologically motivated,” Hasan declared.
“You and I agreed it was an insurrection at the time. So it’s bizarre for Vance to go on TV or go online and say the exact opposite of what both the official statistics say, and the think tanks say, all of our evidence tells us,” the commentator pointed out.
After more than a minute of sitting blanked face why Hasan corrected his initial claim of blaming “the left”, Cuomo jumped in to address one specific point to deny he ever called the Capitol riot “an insurrection.”
Hasan jumped right back in, correcting him, “You called it an insurrection at the time. You did. You did.”
Cuomo still maintained he didn’t as he stumbled his way through. “Ok, go head, show it to me. I never thought that they were trying to take over the government. That’s what an insurrection is.”
Social media users happily obliged. User after user provided Cuomo with the receipts he so confidently requested.
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“I had to watch this twice. It was so refreshing to listen to someone who spoke the truth with eloquence, stated the facts without hesitation and called out the bullsh-t lying going on right now!” this Threads user proclaimed.
Some were just downright frustrated, “Chris sat up there and lied with his whole chest! I’m sure Tucker Carlson remembers @ chrisccuomo saying that he was trying to rewrite the history of the January 6 insurrection.”
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“@chriscuomo April 8th, 2021 you called it an insurrection. Just because you are pandering to the right it does not mean you have to lie about what you said,” Threads user Orlando Calvo commented.
“AND @chriscuomo, … said ‘an insurrection is trying to take over the government…but they weren’t doing that.’ Ummm, that’s literally what they were doing by trying to stop the vote to certify Biden as President and trying to coerce VP Pence into stopping the proceedings so Trump could stay president. They absolutely were trying to take over the government, therefore it was an insurrection,” this Threads user contended.
