OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who has now been suspended from his nightly show, faces more issues than he knew of at his network.
Apparently, some of his colleagues have been lobbying against him after his many scandals, The Daily Beast reported.
“The New York Attorney General’s office released transcripts and exhibits Monday that shed new light on Chris Cuomo’s involvements in his brother’s defense. The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions,” a spokesperson for CNN said.
“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second. However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation,” they said.
Two people familiar with the situation said that while CNN doesn’t want to prolong the matter, Chris Cuomo deserves due process and the opportunity to respond to the most recent revelations.
The people with knowledge of the situation said CNN boss Jeff Zucker had felt serious heat from infuriated talent, including Jake Tapper, over the last 24 hours and acted to yank Cuomo off the air while the review is carried out.
But even more than Tapper, it is starting to look as if Cuomo is friendless at CNN.
“I don’t know anyone who likes him,” the source said.
“He was surviving because it didn’t make Zucker look bad. Now it is,” a top journalist who used to work for Zucker said.
Cuomo’s issue is that transcripts of his emails and well as his own testimony to New York state investigators showed that he strategized with his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s aides and attempted to learn what other journalists were going to report about him and relay that information to his brother’s PR team.
A former aide to Andrew Cuomo, Charlotte Bennett, who said the governor made inappropriate remarks to her, has demanded that CNN fire the younger Cuomo as it awaits the results of its investigation.
“Yesterday, we learned just how far Chris Cuomo was willing to go to discredit, silence and smear women, like me, who came forward to report Governor Cuomo’s sexual misconduct,” she said in a tweet on Tuesday.
“CNN must immediately take action. The network need not investigate his behavior – the investigation is over, and yesterday we received answers: Just like his older brother, Chris Cuomo used his time, network and resources to help smear victims, dig up opposition research, and belittle our credible allegations. His behavior is reprehensible, unprofessional and inexcusable,” the former aide said.
“CNN must act – now. Anything short of firing Chris Cuomo reflects a network lacking both morals and a backbone,” she said.
My response, following yesterday’s news. @CNN, it’s time to do the right thing. https://t.co/RuDbnrW7fC pic.twitter.com/DIgepzO5bW
— Charlotte Bennett (@_char_bennett_) November 30, 2021
In September Chris Cuomo survived another scandal in which his former ABC boss Shelley Ross accused him of sexually assaulting her.
“I was at the party with my husband, who sat behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke as I spoke with work friends. When Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock,” she said of an incident that occurred at a work party in 2005.
“’I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,’ he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance. ‘No you can’t,’ I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left,” she said.
